Cyclone
by craptonofgames
Summary: Follow a brand-new hero along his journey to become a well known hero in an age dominated by big shots!
1. Cyclone 00: Prelude

Cyclone 00: Prelude

Ace Mathews was born in the dirtiest, most corrupt section of New York City; Hell's Kitchen. His parents, Mrs. Marsha Mathews and Mr. Harold Mathews, both worked in an accounting firm. The Mathews had never planned on having a child, but when they had heard the news of Marsha's pregnancy, they quickly made the decision to keep the child. The two lovebirds decided that no matter the gender of the child, they wanted to name it Ace.

When she had Ace, Marsha was forced to quit her position as a receptionist in order to raise him. She had never had a child before Ace; however, it did not escape her notice when the child would do miraculous things like solve jigsaw puzzles at the age of two. When Ace was six years old, Marsha took Ace to a child research institute just outside of the city and they found that Ace's intelligence was far higher than most adults. Surprised by this bit of good news, Harold decided to look around for specialty schools that would be able to accommodate his child's hyper-intelligence. He had looked into the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters, but soon abandoned that notion when he decided that he did not want Ace's life to be shaped by mutants. After months of searching, Harold found out about the Richard's Foundation; a specialized school that teaches child prodigies anything that they wish to know.

After several meetings with Harold, the Richard's Foundation decided that they would accept Ace into their school; however, there was an age requirement of ten years old and Ace was only six, so they could not officially enroll him until he turned of age. Ace spent the remaining four years cooped up in his father's garage tinkering with various projects of his own design. Ace did not yet have the knowledge to build anything spectacular, but he did learn that he had a knack for upgrading outdated technologies.

Once Ace turned ten, he visited the Richard's Foundation and quickly decided to join their student dorms so that he would not have to make the fourteen mile trip twice a day, every day. His parents reluctantly agreed, figuring that Ace would also learn better if he didn't have the distractions that the notorious Hell's Kitchen would bring.

Ace had spent a good portion of his four years prior to enrollment thinking about what fields of study he wanted to learn while studying at the Richard's Foundation. Ace decided that he wanted to be just like his childhood hero, Iron Man so his first course at the Richard's Foundation was electrical engineering. Ace was incredibly fast at learning and after only seven months, signed up to take the masters test in engineering. Ace passed this test with a near-perfect score, taking for himself the title of the world's youngest engineer. He prided himself on obtaining the same engineering degree faster than his idol, Tony Stark.

He moved on to physics, the second degree that his idol had earned. He finished the physics master's program in only one year before moving on to medicine. He continued this trend of high-speed degrees for biology, chemistry, mathematics, and theoretics. Ace was required by the school to take an elective, so Ace reluctantly took Alien Zoology; the study of alien anatomy. Ace did not enjoy his Alien Zoology courses; however, he did get a degree in it, because Ace figured that if he was going to study it anyways, then he might as well become proficient in it. During his senior year, Ace wrote his thesis paper titled "The Benefits of the Implementation and Miniaturization of Interdimensional Transportation." He created a working interdimensional portal generator which he named the IDPG. He earned a B minus due to the fact that the technology wasn't upgraded; only miniaturized.

Ace graduated from the Richard's Foundation on the day of his twentieth birthday. His parents, who were ever so proud of their boy, had talked one of their clients into hiring Ace on as lead engineer. Ace hated this position, so after only two months of the stifling atmosphere, Ace quit from his position and used the money he had made to purchase a cabin in Quebec that his family had rented many times in his youth. He renovated the interior of the cabin to become the perfect workshop for a man of his talents.

He spent the remainder of the year developing a near-infinite energy battery that he called the Nitro-Gravitational Engine; later shortened to Nitrogravi Engine. The Nitrogravi engine burns Nitrogen molecules in order to spin a mechanized gyro that would in turn generate gravitational forces. The near-infinite potential for this battery would only come if the gravitational energy was used to power a collection mechanism that would filter massive quantities of air, syphoning out the Nitrogen molecules. Unfortunately, the current model of Nitrogravi engine can only run for one hour before needing to cool down for thirty minutes. If this model of the Nitrogravi engine is used for more than an hour, then there is the risk of catastrophic failure in which the gyro spins out of control, generating more and more gravitational forces until eventually a black hole would form. Naturally, Ace doesn't want this to happen, so he programmed in a failsafe that shuts the Nitrogravi engine down automatically if an hour has passed while activated.

After watching Iron Man prevent yet another catastrophe on the news, Ace decided that he wanted to become a better hero than Tony Stark, just like he had become a better engineer than Tony Stark. Ace's first attempt at becoming a hero was to genetically alter his body to become more animalistic and then use that to fight crime. He decided that he would model his body off of his favorite animal, the panther, due to their natural agility and ferociousness. Unfortunately, Ace's calculations were just a bit off. His original goal was to alter his body so that he could shift into an anthropomorphic version of a panther and back again; however, he wound up only being able to change his head into that of a panther, grow the tail of a panther, and have the claws of a panther. The one part of the experiment that Ace actually managed to get correct was the ability to shift between a purely human form and this hybrid form. Ace, with his new form, went into the city of Quebec and attempted to stop a robbery in progress. After receiving massive damage to his body, he did manage to stop the robbery. Ace then dragged himself back to his cabin to heal up and design a suit that he could wear that would stop bullets.

He modeled the suit off of his hybrid form and implemented his Nitrogravi engine to power the combat suit. He painted the entire suit black, but added strips of lights to highlight the design of the suit; once activated, the lights would glow a dull red in an attempt to be menacing. He attached the turbine that he used as a syphon for the battery to his right arm and then proceeded into town to try once more to fight crime. The suit stopped bullets perfectly, but became all the more useful to Ace when he accidently set the turbine to too high of a level. The resulting airflow actually wound up tripping up the crooks and granted Ace just enough time to tie up the perpetrators.

Ace redesigned the suit to have additional turbines and made adjustments to the Nitrogravi engine to be able to accommodate these extra turbines. The Cyclone suit, as Ace called it, now had a turbine on each forearm, shin, and one on his chest-plate. The turbines only protruded around one inch off of each arm and shin, while the turbine on Ace's chest had to be specially designed, due to the fact that Ace had to be able to wear the suit. Ace designed the turbine in such a way that the airflow would go into the suit and around Ace's body inside of specialized tubes. Ace went into Quebec for a third time to attempt to fight crime. This time the results were much different. One of the crooks had fired his gun at Ace and the bullet ricocheted off of his suit and went inside of the turbine, damaging the blades. This resulted in catastrophic failure of the turbine, causing it to explode, damaging Ace's arm and shredding the right arm of the suit.

Ace ran from the fight and retreated to his cabin to get back to the drawing board. He patched up his arm and began trying to design some sort of shield that would allow gasses to pass through, but completely stop solids from entering. After implementing the shields, Ace's fourth attempt at stopping crime came quickly in the form of a call for help from the Canadian coast guard. There was a pirate attack in progress occurring off the coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. He put on his suit, a grueling twenty-minute process, and flew off towards the boat. Ace spotted the remains of the victim's boat sinking into the gulf, survivors nowhere to be seen. Growing angry at the fact that the Cyclone suit took so long to equip, Ace spotted the modern-day pirates and flew off after them; however, the pirates saw him coming and fired their cannons at him. Ace managed to avoid most of them, but one of the shots clipped his left shoulder. The impact knocked Ace out of the air and into the gulf. Unfortunately, the turbines were not designed to process water, so they died almost instantly and the lack of fuel caused the Nitrogravi engine to die as well. In order to survive, Ace had to manually disconnect himself from his armor and he had almost drowned trying to get back to the surface.

Frustrated beyond belief, Ace tried to plan his next Cyclone suit around every possible contingency. He redesigned the turbines to be able to process any gas or liquid. He built in a way of having an emergency air supply in case of unplanned submersions like what had happened earlier that day. He also increased the durability of the armor plating so as to be able to last longer in a fight with a heavy-hitter like a tank. While thinking up possible contingencies, Ace also realized that there might be instances where he would need to be able to travel in a complete vacuum, so he designed thrusters built into the legs of the suit that are powered by the Nitrogravi engine instead of using a liquid or solid fuel. He also deigned a way so that his Cyclone suit shrinks and can be stored within Ace's own body so that his twenty minute equip time was reduced down to a half of a second. He based this aspect off of a similar concept as Pym Particles, but based around an atom's gravitational influence on the other identical atoms around it. In order to protect his secret identity, he made it so that the suit will only work in his hybrid form; in fact, it's virtually impossible to even detect his suit while he is in his human form. He accomplished this by making the controls for the suit genetically linked to his hybrid form's DNA. Also, when the suit shrinks, the atoms of the suit wedge themselves into the empty spaces within Ace's own molecules.

Ace also created a couple different weapons to be used in junction with his Cyclone suit. One of which is a portable, single turbine attached to a pistol grip. This Turbine Gun comes with its own battery and was built to be used if Ace's Cyclone suit is disabled, or if the Nitrogravi engine in the Cyclone suit needs to cool down in the middle of a conflict. The other weapon he designed was a remote controlled missile with a highly powerful turbine attached. The missile's purpose is to stick in the ground or any other surface and the turbine will generate a stationary tornado. Due to the fact that the tornado is generated by his turbine, Ace can have the artificial tornado spin either clockwise or counterclockwise. Ace didn't know why he would need the Tornado Missile, but he created it so that he could brag about having a secret weapon to enemies.

Ace's fifth and sixth crime stopping instances were pulled off without a hitch. He showed up on time, stopped the crimes in progress, and even managed not to get hurt at either instance. With these successes under his belt, Ace decided to move back to New York City on his twenty-second birthday to become a real hero. In preparation for the move, Ace purchased the penthouse of one of the downtown buildings to be used as a laboratory and to act as a home base. Ace booked a flight to New York City and began reading up on the local crime and superheroes.

-To be continued in Cyclone 01: The Wrath of the Rhino-


	2. Cyclone 01: The Wrath of the Rhino

Cyclone 01: The Wrath of the Rhino

Ace's flight was pretty good for this day and age. He had been fed two bags of overly salted peanuts, there had been only two instances of turbulence, and he only saw one epic clash between flying metahumans; overall, a pretty good experience. Ace disembarked the plane and walked through the chaos that was the airport. Getting to the baggage claim area of the expansive JFK Airport was almost as hard as trying to cure cancer. All of this hassle made Ace feel like he should've just flown over to New York City with his Cyclone suit, rather than get a ride in a plane; however, the fact that he would've had to have left his luggage behind at his cabin dissuaded him from doing so.

After finally grabbing his brown, large duffle-bag off of the rotating conveyor belt, Ace headed to the exit. Once stepping into the pollution filled air, Ace climbed into the back of one of the many cabs that loiter outside of airports. He blurted out the address to his new penthouse and the cabbie sped off towards the glinting buildings that made up the fine city of New York. The cabbie pulled up to the entrance of the apartment building that was the site of Ace's new penthouse. He paid the fare and walked the short distance into the building and across the lobby to the elevator. A wizened old man in a bellhop outfit stood inside of the single elevator. "What floor?" the old man said.

"Penthouse, please," Ace replied, eying the elderly man.

"Ah, you must be Mr. Mathews."

"Please, call me Ace; everyone does," Ace said, getting the feeling that this old man was one of those warm grandpa types, not the cold Scrooge types.

"Very well Ace. What made you decide to purchase the penthouse? Even the celebrities mainly just rent them," the bellhop said with an inquisitive tone to his words.

"Well, if you must know, I'm setting up a laboratory in this penthouse and due to the remodeling that will need to be done; I had to have purchased it. If I had not purchased the penthouse, I would have the hassle of fighting the landlords for rights to remodel and I would always have the risk of being thrown out. By the way, what is your name?" Ace asked. He didn't truly care, but he thought it'd be rude of him not to ask the man's name, since the man had asked Ace for his.

"I'm just Stanly. I was a writer once, but those days are behind me. Now I just love talking to people in this elevator. Did you know that I once had the opportunity to talk to Benjamin Grimm? He's such a nice fella, even if he does have a rough exterior, pardon my pun," Stanly said, chuckling a little at his own joke. Ace smiled at the pun, but didn't have time to respond with something equally as witty before there was a dinging sound and the elevator doors opened. "Here's your stop," Stanly said with a large grin stretching across his face.

"Thanks for the company," Ace said as he stepped into a small room. Directly in front of him was a door that read 'Penthouse suite' in gold letters. He twisted the plain bronze handle and the door swung open silently. The light filtering in from the floor to ceiling windows spilled into the small room. Ace stepped inside onto the fluffy carpet and looked around. The penthouse didn't come with many furnishings, but the vast sea of cardboard boxes told Ace that most, if not all, of the equipment that he had ordered had come already. Setting down his duffle-bag, Ace set to work unboxing the equipment.

Boxes and packing peanuts littered the lush carpet as Ace began breaking out his toys from their cardboard prisons. After around three hours, the entirety of the equipment had been unboxed and Ace set to bagging up the garbage. Once that herculean feat had been accomplished, he loaded them onto the freight elevator designed for the transportation of large or heavy items and equipment. After having phone conference meetings with the apartment managers and the city council, Ace had gotten special bulk and industrial dumpsters implemented for Ace's privet use. Ace loaded the packing material onto the freight elevator and sent it down. A quick phone call down to the small sanitarian station at the base of the hotel notified them that none of the materials were hazardous and that they needed to go into the bulk bin. The city required the apartment complex to have this sanitarian station with their four workers in order to ensure the safety of the tenants and to make sure that no one scavenged inside the industrial waste bin.

With the trash taken out, Ace began organizing the equipment. He planned on using the massive media room and old billiard room as his laboratory. He set all of his drafting and computation equipment up in the smaller billiards room, while leaving the spacious media room to become the crowded workstation. After an exceedingly long six hours, the unpacking process was complete. Ace collapsed onto his queen sized bed and fell asleep, not caring that he hadn't drawn the curtains or changed into his pajamas.

The sun's light poured into the master bedroom at an all too early time of 6:49 AM. Ace shuffled into his kitchen nook and began to make some coffee. A sudden rapping on his door alerted the tired man, so he shuffled his way over to the front door. Upon opening the front door, he spotted a slender, blue-suited woman. Her short-cropped red hair caught the light and provided a stimulus to Ace that no cup of Joe could ever bring. He mentally noted the lack of makeup and nail polish as the woman extended her hand and said something incomprehensible to the tired man's ears. "Hmm, what was that?" Ace said, hearing the ding of the coffeepot finishing its duties.

With a look of mild annoyance, the red-headed woman repeated, "I said my name is Sasha Nicolson and I'm from S.H.I.E.L.D." Ace eyed the patch on Sasha's right shoulder.

"And what does the esteemed espionage organization want with a lowly scientist?" Ace said, knowing what would come up next.

"We honestly don't care about your scientific endeavors, I'm just here to regulate your antics in that power suit you were using in Canada," Sasha said, visibly annoyed at the fact that she had gotten stuck with a baby-sitting job. "You're clearly not responsible enough to be acting as a hero all on your own, so I'm here to get you to that level as fast as possible. I don't want to be here and you'll soon learn that you don't want me here. The faster you become experienced at being a hero, the faster I can leave, so hop to it. Also, is that coffee I smell?"

Stunned at the severe lack of tact coming from the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Ace didn't quite know what to say. "Yeah, it's coffee, want some?" he offered, hoping to get on this grouchy lady's good side.

"Yes, black. I'm going to go and drop off my luggage in your spare bedroom. Oh yeah, I have to bunk with you as per my orders, so keep the science sounds down at night, ok?" Sasha said as she walked past a confused Ace. He hadn't even noticed the fact that there had been a petite brown briefcase on the ground at the agent's feet.

He speechlessly walked back to his kitchen nook and grabbed two mugs from the cupboard, pouring the steamy black liquid into them both. He brought one of them into the spare bedroom and set it down on the nightstand. Ace then turned and walked out of the room, not knowing if he should be angry at the fact that he's being leashed, or proud of the fact that S.H.I.E.L.D. recognizes him as a hero. "I guess it's a little bit of both," Ace muttered as he took his own cup into the drafting room. He sat down and began sketching what looked to be a radio. Sasha had meandered over many times in the hours to pass to see what he was drafting, but left more and more puzzled each time.

Around noon, Ace finished his final draft and pinned the large sketch to a corkboard that was set up in his laboratory. Ace decided to make a bit of lunch before starting the building process. He asked if Sasha was allergic to anything and upon receiving a "negative" from the agent, began making Panini for the two of them. He set down the two sandwiches on the small kitchen table and the two dug in, washing down the sandwiches with a glass of water for the agent and a cold soda pop for Ace. After the silence that lunch brought, Ace decided that he had to fill the audio void with some music. He popped his iPod into his speaker system and the rhythmic beats from his music began blaring. After a death-glare from Sasha, Ace turned the music down until it was simply background noise as he began crafting his radio. Ace had the radio finished by three in the afternoon. He set it aside and took a quick nap in the master bedroom to become refreshed and ready for the evening.

The clock tolled six in the evening and Ace rolled out of bed. He made a quick supper and afterwards, sat down in front of the radio that he had finished just that afternoon. Ace flipped the radio around and opened up a small panel on the back. Tearing into a fifty-pack of AA-batteries, Ace grabbed four of them and slipped them into place in the radio. Ace closed the panel and turned it around once more. He pressed a small black button on the front and the loud hiss of static filled the room. Ace adjusted the antennae until the static was virtually unnoticeable.

Ace turned up the volume and a woman's voice began coming out of the sole speaker in the front of the radio. The voice said, "We've got a possible 10-32 in progress over on fifth. Unit 842, you are closest to the scene, check it out and report back with more information." At this, Sasha walked over, giving the radio a closer inspection. "You know you can buy police scanners, right? You didn't need to make them," Sasha said, confused.

"True, but why buy something that you can easily make with your own hands? Plus, it'd raise suspicions for a non-police affiliated member of the public to have a police scanner," Ace said, not taking his eyes off of the radio. Ace switched over to his hybrid form and activated the Cyclone suit. The pieces seemed to grow out of him and slide into place. Ace reached up and manually detached his helmet and took it off. Ace set the helmet on the table and using a screwdriver, opened a small panel on the inside of the helmet. Ace slid part of the radio off and inserted it into the newly opened crevice. Ace shut the panel again and slid the helmet back on his head. Ace tapped the side of the helmet and heard the police dispatcher's voice in his ears. Nodding in satisfaction, Ace deactivated his suit and reverted back to his human form.

Ace turned up the volume for the police scanner and went into the kitchen to get himself a cold soda pop; the pop of the can being opened was music to his ears after the extensive building session. Ace walked back into the drafting room and grabbed for himself another blank sheet. Pencil in one hand, soda in the other, Ace began making sketches of what looked to be a satellite.

Not long after Ace finished his soda, the dispatcher called out, "We've gotten reports of The Rhino robbing the Downtown branch of the New York Credit Union. Be advised, the Rhino is extremely dangerous." Ace looked towards the scanner and raised his eyebrows, "huh, a villain on my first day? Well, at least it's only the Rhino and not some bigwig."

Sasha, who seemingly appeared out of thin air, said, "Did I just hear you correctly? Did you just minimize the potential threat? That is a rookie mistake! Always approach every scenario as if it is the worst case scenario. Do you know the Rhinos peak strength?"

"Uh, a lot?" Ace said, hoping to defuse the situation.

"Hell yeah, it's a lot! Rhino has fought the Hulk, you think he can't take you out?!" Sasha said, visibly disturbed.

"Cool, can I go fight the bad guy now?" Ace said, trying to escape from the verbal torment. He activated the mental switch to transform into his hybrid form and then activated the suit. He felt the metal slide around his body and heard the distinct clicks of the joints attaching. Ace walked over to one of the bay windows that he had specially installed. It was designed to crack open a little to let noxious fumes out of the closed environment; however, Ace had modified it just a bit so that it could get wide enough to allow his Cyclone suit to pass through.

Ace activated his leg turbines and took off through the window. He pressed a button on his wrist, which closed the window behind him. Ace turned towards downtown New York City and began flying there. As he was flying, Ace kept his eyes peeled for a bank that looked like it was being robbed. Eventually, Ace spotted the small bank and directed his body at the glass doors. He flew through the doors, his Cyclone suit obliterating the relatively fragile glass. Ace landed in a roll and popped up with his arms pointed at the massive, grey-suited man. Ace activated his arm turbines, but kept them on standby. "Oi, big guy, you're one of Spider-man's villains, right? Which one are you again? The Beetle?"

The gargantuan turned slowly towards Ace, his horn glinting maliciously in the fluorescent light. "What did ya just call me?" The big man's words came out much deeper than Ace was expecting.

"Uh, I asked if you were the beetle," Ace said, nervous due to his lack of experience.

"I know what ya said, I just don't know why ya said it. I aint the Beetle, I'm the Rhino!" Rhino said as he bent his head down and began charging Ace.

Ace pointed to his left and activated his left arm turbine, sliding out of the way of the Rhino's charge. "You know, you could pull off the name Dynastinae, or Rhinocerous Beetle!" Ace shouted excitedly as he aimed his right arm turbine towards Rhino's massive back. The low hum turned into a high pitched whine as air began being hurled out of the turbine at such speeds that it might as well be a solid. The stream of air slammed into Rhino's left shoulder, causing the Rhino to stumble slightly.

Rhino turned towards Ace, his eyes burning bright with hatred, and said, "Who the heck are ya, anyways? I aint never seen ya 'round here." The lumbering goliath began walking towards Ace, his long legs easily closing the distance.

"Oh, uh, I haven't thought up a name for myself quite yet. I'll tell you later, once I've locked you up in the big house," Ace said, trying to act witty, despite the situation. Ace cocked back his right arm and activated the turbine in reverse. His arm snapped forward at incredibly fast speeds and slammed into Rhino's face. The impact staggered the big man, but he remained on his feet. "Oh, you have got to be kidding me!" Ace shouted, "That hit would have dented a tank; how the heck are you still standing?!"

"Kid, I've fought the Hulk before; you aint got nothin' on the Hulk," Rhino said, rubbing his cheek. The big man grabbed the teller's booth that he was standing near and heaved it out of the ground. Rhino chucked it at Ace, who didn't have time to dodge. The booth slammed into Ace, sending him flying into the bank wall. Luckily, due to the infrastructure of the Cyclone suit, Ace's body took little damage from the attack; however, the blow did knock the breath out of him.

"Oof," Ace muttered, "I'm going to be feeling that in the morning." He looked towards Rhino and used his turbines to cross the distance in the blink of an eye. Ace used his arm turbines to deliver strong blows repeatedly to the face of the behemoth before Rhino could react. Rhino was staggered yet again, this time falling to the ground. There was a small trickle of blood running out of Rhino's nose, but the man-monster didn't seem to notice. While the Rhino was down, Ace used the leg turbines to deliver a massive kick to Rhino's face, knocking him out.

Ace sat down on Rhino's chest, tired from the intense battle. He realized that he had no handcuffs or anything else to tie Rhino up, so he decided to sit on him until the police arrive. Before the boys in blue could arrive, a more friendly face appeared. This new arrival was none other than the Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man who looked mightily confused at the scene before him. "Well, looks like my job is done here," Spider-man said, looking at Ace.

"Uh, could you tie this guy up for me; I seem to have forgotten my ability to fire webs in my other suit."

"Hooray," Spider-man said sarcastically, "I get to do the 'important' part." Spider-man shuffled over to where Ace was and webbed the man down to the ground. "That should keep him until the cops arrive." Ace decided that this was a good time to leave, so he flew through the wrecked doors and flew a few blocks over, landing on the roof. Within seconds, Spider-man had swung over and joined Ace on his roof. "So," Spider-man asked, "what's your deal?"

"I shoot air at extreme speeds out of the turbines in my suit. Why do you ask?" Ace said, hesitant to trust Spider-man.

"Oh, no reason other than to see if you're cool or not. So, are you a good guy or do I need to take you down?"

"Well that seems like a rather loaded question. I am a hero, but I did just start off, so I'm not the very experienced," Ace said, awkwardly twiddling his suited thumbs.

"What about the color scheme? It seems pretty evil to me," Spider-man said accusatively.

"For stealth purposes. I can deactivate the red lights and the black suit would then become effectively invisible at night," Ace said, not liking the very invasive questions.

"Hmm… I'd recommend that you stick to the smaller guys until you can take on the big guys by yourself. Ooh, I know! Why don't you join the Avengers Academy? There, you'll get the training you need to become a true hero!" Spider-man said inquisitively.

"How about no. I think I'll just solo it on the small fry and team up on the big fry for now and when I become better, then I can solo on the big fry," Ace said. He had no intention of teaming up with others at the moment, but he did want an "in" within the superhero community and Spider-man could provide him that.

"Well, I guess you can do that if you really want to, but do realize that the hero business is not for everyone. I've known several young guys like you who wanted to become heroes, but wound up quitting within days."

"Those guys don't have my suit."

"By the way, what's your name?" Spider-man asked.

"Hey, I'm not going to reveal my secret identity to you that easily!" Ace said, baffled at the lack of tact.

"No no no, not your real name, your superhero name!" Spider-man said, surprised that Ace had misunderstood.

"Oh, I, uh, haven't come up with one yet," Ace said hesitantly.

With a condescending look on his face, Spider-man said, "You're kidding me? You took on someone like Rhino before you even figured out what you want to call yourself?!"

"I guess so," Ace said, awkwardly shuffling his feet. "Well, the name of my suit is the Cyclone suit, so maybe Cyclone?"

"Yeah, that'd work, I guess. Next time, be more prepared," Spider-man swung off into the city and Ace quickly lost sight of the skinny man in the forest of concrete and glass. Ace tapped the side of his helmet, activating the police scanner. Besides the small stuff, the city was relatively quiet, so he decided to head back to his apartment to rest up.

Once back inside, Ace deactivated the Cyclone suit and lay down on his bed, still in his hybrid form. "Ugh, having giant chunks of wood and safety glass hurled against you hurts a lot more than you'd think it would," Ace muttered, tenderly touching the still sensitive part of his chest. Within a few minutes, Ace had fallen asleep only to wake up several hours later.

Ace shuffled into the kitchen, the green digits of the microwave's clock reading 10:46 PM. Ace cooked himself an omelet and made up a few strips of bacon. He sat down at the kitchen table and shoveled the belated dinner into his mouth. After breakfast, Ace decided to switch back into his human form, get dressed, and go hit the night scene. After a few hours of clubbing, he headed back to his apartment to get some more sleep for the night.

The morning light filtering through the windows woke Ace up from his slumber. Ace grabbed a granola bar from one of the kitchen cupboards and a bottle of juice from the fridge. He munched on the granola bar and flipped on the TV. Ace changed channels to one of the news channels, hoping to hear about his fight with the Rhino, but was appalled at the news he did hear. "Early this morning, the transport van that the NYPD were using to transfer the Rhino, the perpetrator of yesterday's bank robbery, was found crashed on its way to the high security prison. The personnel inside the van were taken to the hospital and are expected to make a full recovery. Rhino is nowhere to be found."

"Aw, crap, why couldn't he have just played along and made me look good? That'd have been nice," Ace grumbled. Knowing that he had no way of finding the Rhino before the police did, Ace set to work designing his next invention; a probe that would be able to travel between dimensions. There was no scientific purpose to this probe; it was simply something that Ace had been interested in since his thesis paper on transdimensional technology. The design process was a bit slower than that of the police scanner since Ace was dealing with technologies that defied the laws of physics.

Several hours later, Ace had put the finishing touches on the design specs for the probe and decided to check the news again. Upon turning on the TV, Ace saw that the Rhino situation had taken a turn for the worse. The news chopper was currently circling a construction site and some reporter was babbling on about how Rhino had taken this latest construction project hostage and that if the owner didn't pay up, he'd knock the whole structure down.

"Well then, this sounds like a job for Cyclone!" Ace shouted enthusiastically. Ace switched to his hybrid form and immediately activated his Cyclone suit. He opened the window and flew off, heading towards the scene. Back in the apartment, Sasha was in her room, finishing up some paperwork about the fight that had occurred the day before.

Ace landed near the entrance to the construction site and spotted the Rhino currently fighting Spider-man. "Nice of you to show up," shouted Spider-man sarcastically. Rhino looked over his shoulder to see who Spider-man was talking to. Upon seeing Ace, Rhino said, "Well, if it aint my old sparrin' buddy," Spider-man took advantage of Rhinos temporary distraction and swung forward, landing a double-footed kick to the back of Rhinos head. The towering behemoth stumbled closer to Ace who delivered a turbine powered uppercut to Rhinos jaw. The big man fell backwards, landing on his back.

Unfortunately, Rhino was only stunned by this and rose to his feet once more, blood trailing from a split lip. Rhino scooted to the side so that his back was not facing either of the two heroes. "Ya aint gonna do that twice!" growled Rhino through gritted teeth. Ace walked over to a pile of girders and picked one up, his suit groaning over the effort. Ace activated his arm and leg turbines, spinning his body. Once he gained enough momentum, Ace released the girder, causing it to go flying at Rhino; or at least, where Rhino was moments ago. The Rhino had dodged out of the way of the attack seconds before the attack was launched, causing the girder to go slamming through a nearby fence and into the office building next door to the construction site. "Aw, crap," Ace said.

Ace looked over to Spider-man who was glaring accusatorily at Ace. "What, I'm sorry! Sheesh, like you never make a mistake," muttered Ace. He turned back around just in time to see a large, grey fist slam into his helmet, sending him flying backwards. An unfortunate cab happened to be driving past and was crumpled inward when Ace slammed into its yellow body. The cab driver got out of his cab and began yelling at Ace, who couldn't understand what was being said. "Huh," Ace said to himself, "I must have a concussion. I've never had one of those before." Ace struggled to his feet once more and stumbled back to the fight. Spider-man seemed to have the Rhino at a stalemate. Ace flew up into the air around one mile straight up, did a small flip, and began jettisoning himself towards the lumbering giant. Ace's speed continuously increased until, moments before impact, Ace did a small flip and landed feet first against the side of Rhino's head.

Ace felt part of his boots crumple under the force of the impact and he saw a grey blur as the Rhino was sent flying. Rhino landed a solid thirty feet away from the point of impact and lay there motionless. Ace walked up to the man and removed his armored gauntlet. He checked for a pulse and found one, although it was a weak pulse. "Phew, he's still alive. For a second there, I was worried about that," Ace said, turning towards a bewildered Spider-man.

"Why didn't you do that before?!" Spider-man shouted, swinging over to where Ace was standing.

"I didn't know whether or not it would kill him, so I was hesitant."

"Well, whatever, you beat Rhino. Good job, I mean that. However, I still think you need to go and do some training," Spider-man said, sounding genuinely concerned.

Ace slipped his armored gauntlet back on and said, "Thanks for being concerned, but I think I'll be fine." Ace flew off and took a long, elaborate way home to make sure Spider-man wasn't following and landed inside of his room. Unfortunately, Ace had forgotten to shut his window upon leaving and the wind had scattered all of his probe sketches. "Dang it," Ace muttered as he began picking up all the loose sheets of drafting paper. Once the papers were picked up, Ace deactivated his armor and began getting to work on building the probe.

-To be continued in: Cyclone 02: Mysterious Occurrences-


	3. Cyclone 02: Mysterious Occurrences

Cyclone 02: Mysterious Occurrences

"Ahh…" Ace sighed, leaning back from his now finished prototype interdimensional probe, "I'm glad to finally have this one done. Now to test it out and see if it works." Ace reached forward to flip a switch when a slender, gloved hand snapped out of nowhere and grabbed his outstretched wrist.

"Ah, ah, ah," said the now-familiar voice of Sasha Nicolson, Ace's babysitter from the esteemed S.H.I.E.L.D. organization. "No more playing with toys until you get to bed. You have been up for ninety-six hours straight; I don't want you messing with reality breaking technologies with the threat of unconsciousness looming over you." Ace was almost surprised by this, thinking that this was an act of genuine concern on Sasha's part. "Also," Sasha continued, "I would get in trouble with my superiors if you were to destroy the universe." Ace smiled and laughed at this, but a stern look from Sasha said that she wasn't kidding.

"Uh, how can they reprimand you if the universe has been destroyed?"

"You haven't met my boss," Sasha said seriously, the setting sun behind her made her look ominous.

Ace decided to heed her command and go to bed. "Has it really been ninety-six hours?" Ace muttered to himself, looking at the clock on his microwave. "I guess it has been. Oh well, I guess it can wait." Ace flopped into his bed and was asleep before his head hit his pillow. At some point during the night, Ace woke up and meandered over to the probe, but was heaved over Sasha's shoulder using some sort of wrestling move that he had never seen before. She hauled him back to his bedroom, threw his tired body on the bed, and left. There was the loud rattle of a large deadbolt outside his bedroom door sliding home. This lock was installed by Sasha for instances such as these.

At around noon the next day, Ace woke up feeling refreshed. He tried the door and found that it was already unlocked. He meandered over to the kitchen nook and began cooking the two of them breakfast. Sasha was already sitting at the kitchen table, drinking a cup of coffee with one hand; the other was propping up a copy of the Daily Bugle. "Do you ever sleep?" Ace asked, "Also, why do you read that rag? It's mainly fictitious."

"First, if you of all people could catch me sleeping, my enemies could definitely catch me sleeping and we wouldn't want that, would we? Also, it's important to see all sides to every issue, not just the ones that agree with you. Lastly, your bacon is burning," Sasha said, mockingly pointing a finger at the skillet behind Ace that currently held blackened strips of the delicious, cured meat. Ace flipped around quickly and scooped up the ruined meat with a spatula. He dumped it into the trash and placed four more strips into the pan, making sure to turn down the heat so that they would cook a lot slower than the last four.

Once breakfast had been made and consumed, Ace walked over to where the probe was finished. He switched on the probe and a small beep was heard from one of the many computers that lined the walls. Ace walked over and sat down in front of that computer. He looked at the scrolling lines of code and hit the enter key once he saw the line that he needed. This line was where Ace would input the coordinates for the alternate universe that he wanted to send the probe to. He decided that it would be best to start from the oldest surviving universe and then work his way forward. He was not going for any prize, so he could afford to take a nice, leisurely pace with this work. Ace plugged in the coordinates 00,00,00; the hypothetical coordinates for the original universe. Ace inputted the activation key and turned it, activating the probe. There was a whirring sound that came from the probe when suddenly; a ring-like attachment on the top of the probe began spinning. It began glowing red and then a beam of light shot out of it. This beam expanded into the shape of an oval and through the oval, there could be seen some sort of thick rainforest. The probe activated its thrusters and silently glided through the portal, with the portal closing behind it.

With the probe successfully inside of this alternate universe, Ace switched the display module on and saw what the camera built into the front of the probe saw. There was the same thick rainforest that Ace glimpsed through the portal. Ace piloted the probe through the trees with expert precision. Sasha, who had been silently reading the Daily Bugle, walked up behind Ace and leaned over his shoulder. "Huh, so that's another universe? Doesn't seem all that special to me," she said, her words thick with boredom.

Ace shrugged his shoulders and replied, "What'd you expect? Bustling cities? Not every universe has advanced as far as we have, as fast as we have. I haven't even seen any life forms that weren't botanical. Wait, what's that?" Ace had spotted a flash of brown through the trees. He steered the probe over to where the brown thing was. It appeared to be a statue made from some indeterminable stone in the form of a half-dragon, half-humanoid thing. "Huh, a statue? Who made it? There's no sign of life," Ace said, completely baffled.

Sasha, who was still watching, pointed at the screen, her fingertip brushing against the base of the statue. "What are those squiggly lines at the base? Is that some sort of language?" she asked, showing hints of interest now.

"I don't know, but what I can do is keep the probe stationary and hook the feed into one of the machines I made in school. The machine is designed for the sole purpose of translating messages that are in alien languages. The only problem is that it might take a long time to process, due to it having no apparent connection to earth languages," Ace said as he began shuffling through pieces of equipment. He eventually found a small, white box that had two slots on the front and a USB port on the top. Ace set the white box on the desk next to the computer and connected the two with a USB cord that he had lying around. He then fed in a couple sheets of printer paper into the lower of the two slots. After a few key taps on the keyboard, Ace had brought up the program for running the translation device and then linked the feed into the program. "Nothing to do now, but wait," Ace said, reclining in his chair.

Ace spun around in his swivel chair and grabbed the TV remote, flipping it on. He saw his favorite news station was currently playing their morning segments and decided to watch that. There were some rather boring pieces that showed Reed Richards getting yet another Nobel Prize, the hourly story on how Spider-Man is the devil, and some boring killer robot sightings in Queens. "Well, since I have nothing better to do, I might as well go and stop that killer robot," Ace said, entirely unenthusiastic.

Within minutes Ace had suited up and flown down to Queens. He saw the robot in question, it was roughly twenty feet tall, had flamethrowers on each shoulder, but otherwise didn't look all that lethal. Ace flew down and evened out with the street, activating his arm turbines. Once he reached the killer robot, Ace blasted it with as strong of a blast as he could muster. Unlike most robots that could take a licking and keep on ticking, this robot was sent flying by the gust. Ace watched as he saw the monster go sailing through the air and only then realized that there had been a school bus that was parked behind where the robot was standing. The robot slammed into the school bus, puncturing the side. Ace flew towards the bus to make sure that the dozens of screaming kids inside were safe. Before Ace reached the side of the bus however, there was a flash of light that came from within the bus followed by a sudden explosion. The explosion sent Ace flying down the street and slammed him into a wall, making an imprint and knocking the hero out.

Ace opened his eyes to find that there was chaos everywhere. The explosion had also sent some nearby pedestrians flying so there were unconscious bodies lying up and down the street. As Ace tried to shake off the woozy feeling, he spotted something burning at his feet. He bent down for a closer inspection and saw that it was a burning doll. This discovery made him snap up and run over the epicenter of the blast, the school bus. Ace stuck his head in the burning husk of a bus and saw horrors that he would never forget. There were burning husks of children within the bus along with their toys. Ace dropped to his knees, his chest tightening and his eyes involuntarily crying.

Some indistinguishable amount of time later, there was the sound of fire engines approaching. Deciding that it was probably not for the best to remain at the scene, Ace stood up and flew back to his apartment as fast as possible. Crashing through the window and rolling to a stop, Ace saw that someone had been in his apartment, rooting through his stuff. He sprinted over to the guest room and threw open the door expecting to find Sasha hard at work typing some report, but he found that this room had also been rifled through. Ace deactivated his armor and threw himself down on the guest bed, thinking over what had happened earlier that day.

"Stupid robot! Every other freaking robot wouldn't have even been lifted off the ground by that attack, but this one went flying!" Ace suddenly sat up on his bed, "Oh crap! Everyone is going to blame me for this! Shoot, I better get out of here befo-" Ace was cut off by the sound of feet stomping through his things. A half dozen S.H.I.E.L.D. agents suddenly appeared in his bedroom doorway with guns leveled at his chest.

"Ace Mathews put your hands in the air, you are under arrest in light of today's events," the agent closest to Ace shouted. Ace, still shaking from nerves, put his hands in the air. He was subsequently handcuffed roughly and was read his rights. He was dragged downstairs and tossed into a hover-cart. The cart was shot quickly into the air and flew towards what appeared to be a flying ship.

The cart flew into a docking bay and landed without even a bump. Ace was hauled down a hallway and tossed roughly into a holding room. In this holding room, there was only a metal bed with a thin mattress and a toilet. Ace sat down on the bed and began to wait, dreading what might come next.

Countless hours later, after Ace had a nap, more S.H.I.E.L.D. agents opened the cell door and drug Ace farther into the ship. They swung open a door marked "Interrogation Room" and tossed him inside. Ace lost his balance and he slammed shoulder first into a metal table that was solidly bolted to the floor. A white man with an intimidating glare looked at him. An eye patch covering his left eye only made Ace feel even more terrified of what might happen to him. "Get up," growled the man who could only be Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. "You don't how much trouble you're in, do you?"

Pulling him-self up off the floor, the handcuffs not helping his now aching shoulder, Ace sat him-self down in a chair opposite Fury. "I swear it's not my fault sir, the robot must've been built to be-" Ace was interrupted by Fury slamming his gloved fist down on the table.

"I'm not talking about the robot, this is far worse!"

"N-Not the robot? But, what could be worse than that?" Ace said, his fear of this man growing by the second.

"I'm talking about your experiment. I assume you know which one I'm talking about," the terrifying man said with a growl.

"The inter-dimensional probe?"

"Yes, the inter-dimensional probe, the one that you sent to an unexplored universe. Do you know what the translation was on that statue's base?" Nick Fury asked.

"How could I? I didn't have a chance to check it before your goons dragged me out of my apartment. Why don't you ask Sasha, she would've been the one to see it," Ace said, his fear now turning towards hatred at the fact that this man was putting some statue above the lives of dozens of children's deaths.

"Sasha?" Nick Fury said, his anger now muddled with a bit of confusion.

"Sasha Nicolson, the stooge you sent to babysit me until I became a good hero," Ace said, wondering how this had slipped past Nick Fury's awareness.

"We do not have an agent by the name of Sasha Nicolson. Could you give me a description of this woman so my people can track down the woman who is impersonating a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent?" Nick Fury looked as if he had completely forgotten about his anger.

"Uh, well, she had red hair and the hair was cut short. She was skinny, but she did have muscles. Beyond that, I don't remember any specifics. She seemed like she knew what she was doing and was always filling out some sort of report."

Nick Fury tapped the table and a hologram appeared. Fury tapped through the menus faster than Ace could read which something he can do faster than most humans. Fury stopped and a holographic Sasha appeared above the desk. This holographic version of Sasha had long red hair. "Yeah, that's her," Ace said.

"Hmm…" Nick Fury scratched his chin. "This situation just became incredibly more complicated. This person that you know as Sasha Nicolson is in reality a spy that goes by the name of Femelean. Her employer is none other than Doctor Doom, but she hasn't been seen in years. When my agents stormed your apartment, they reported that it was a mess. Was the apartment trashed when you arrived back from Queens?"

"Yes, sir."

"Was anything missing?"

Ace had to pause and think about this for a while. Ace had a near-photographic memory and scrolled through the scenes in his head of everything that happened between him crashing through his window and the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents coming and arresting him. He could clearly see his apartment and all of the clutter that lay around. "No sir, there was nothing physical was removed that I saw. Maybe something digital, but I didn't check my computers. Wait, did your men recover the translation from the statue?"

"I've sent agents to clear out your apartment and begin searching through your belongings. If the translation is there, then they'll find it. Once they're done, I want you to go through your computer and see if anything is missing that should be there. Back to the matter at hand, while you were gone, there was an energy surge that originated inside of your apartment that our specialists say was a result of the transportation of matter from another universe into ours. From the data we collected off of your controls for the probe, it was destroyed prior to the transportation. We are trying to decrypt the visual files so we can see what it saw, but we're having no luck so far. Our best guess is that someone, or something, has invaded our universe once they, or it, came across your probe. We have no idea how it managed to cross into our universe, but one of our reliable seer sources has been quoted in saying that doom is imminent. We need you to decrypt the visual files and let our men analyze it."

"First things first, I want to somehow rectify the catastrophe that I caused yesterday morning and make sure that I'm not seen as some sort of menace like Spider-Man is," Ace said, hoping to use the situation to get S.H.I.E.L.D.s help.

After a few moments of deliberation, Fury nodded. "Fine, I'll allow you to do so; however, do keep in mind that we do not know the timetable for this invader. This means that it might attack us at any time. Do I have your word that if the invader does pop back onto our radar, you will drop whatever you're doing and come to assist?"

"Yes, sir," Ace said. There was a clicking noise from the handcuffs and they fell to the floor with the clink of metal on metal. Ace rubbed his wrists and walked out of the room. On the way to the hanger, he activated his suit and as soon as he reached the wide open hanger, he took off flying towards Queens.

Once he arrived where the carnage had gone down the day before, Ace saw that the only workers on the scene were firefighters helping to clear rubble and debris out of the road so that traffic could go by. Ace landed near one of the firefighters and asked, "Excuse me sir, where did the bodies get shipped to?"

With a look of annoyance, the firefighter responded, "the children got _transported_ to the Mercy General Hospital up on fifth. Hey wait, weren't you on the scene when this went down? You better stay here and I'll get a cop to escort you to the station for questioning."

"Uh, sorry, I already got debriefed by Nick Fury," Ace said as he started his turbines. He flew off to the hospital and landed just outside of their main entrance. When he walked in, he strode up to the receptionist's desk and placed his hands on the counter. To the surprised looking receptionist, he said, "I need you to take me to the morgue, it's very important."

The nurse looked confused, but obliged. "You know," the chubby nurse said, brushing one of her curly locks of brown hair off of her shoulder. "I'm not supposed to do this, but I was in the bank when the Rhino tried to rob it a few days ago, so I know you're a good guy."

Ace nodded, but didn't say anything. His stomach was knotting up, because he was going to see corpses of children. They arrived at their destination and the nurse motioned him to go in. Ace stepped inside the room and could immediately smell the scent of burnt flesh. He tapped a button on his wrist that sealed his suit from the outside air and only used recycled, sterile air. Ace saw an old man with a pair of half-moon glasses. He approached saying, "You must be the mortician, what can you tell me about these children." Ace made a broad, sweeping gesture at the rows of gurneys filled with small burnt people.

"Not much, I'm afraid," the old mortician said with a sigh. "Other than that these aren't children."

"Eh?" Ace said, "What do you mean 'not children'?"

"These are some of the best robots that I have ever seen. They even come with real skin and muscles so when they are burned, they smell like a real burning body."

Ace glared at the old man through his suit. "You sure sound like you admire these… things."

"Of course, but that's probably only because I'm so pleased that these were in fact, not real children. Although, this does raise the question, who would build robots like these and then blow them up?"

"I don't know, but I intend to find out!" Ace said angrily. He turned on his heel and stormed out through the morgues doors. Once outside, Ace flew off towards the scene of the crime once more. The firefighters were still there, but there was very little that needed to be done. Ace landed in an alley and switched to his human form so that the firefighters would not call the cops on him. Ace then walked up and down the street looking for clues as to who would have done such a thing.

After an hour of searching, Ace had still found nothing. It was the early afternoon at this point, so Ace decided to enjoy the fresh air and walk back to his apartment. He slid into the elevator and there was Stanly boasting a grim smile. "Hey there Ace!" Stanly said, already pushing the penthouse button. "Did you hear the horrible news? That Cyclone fellow blew up a bunch of children." Ace looked and spotted a folded Daily Bugle sticking out of one of Stanly's pockets. "The worst part is," Stanly continued. "Is that Cyclone has been spotted near this building multiple times! If you ask me, I think that he's one of the tenants! It isn't you, is it Ace?" Stanly gave Ace a tap with his hand jokingly.

"Don't be ridiculous Stanly. If I had a flying suit, would I take the elevator?" Ace said, hoping to get Stanly off of the topic. The elevator dinged and the doors slid open to reveal the trashed penthouse.

"My word," Stanly gasped, "what on Earth happened here?" The door into the penthouse lay on the floor as if something had kicked it down from the inside and Ace's belongings lay scattered all over the floor.

"Oh, this? It's just from the party that I had last night and by party I mean that I got drunk and frustrated with my life."

"Oh my, if you ever need help or feel lonely, you can just talk to me…" Stanly said comfortingly. Ace stepped out of the elevator and waved to Stanly as the doors closed again. Turning towards the mess, Ace cracked his knuckles and began trying to put everything back where it belonged.

While he was working, Ace turned the TV on so that he could hear the news. He was sorting through a bucket of bolts when he heard a breaking news report. The announcer read off, "This just in; a robot similar in design to the one in yesterday's calamity has been spotted breaking into to New York Central Bank." Before the reporter could say more, Ace donned his suit and flew out the still broken window. He began speeding off in the direction of the bank and arrived in mere minutes.

Ace saw the robot in the street and landed a fair distance away from it. "Now then, big guy, I don't want to hit you very hard, just in case you're like the last fellow. Hmmm, how do I go about this?" Ace muttered to himself, putting his genius mind to work.

Ace saw a blur of motion just above the robot and suddenly there was an explosion. Luckily, there was nothing around the robot, so the explosion didn't destroy anything. Ace waited for the smoke to clear and when it did, he was surprised. There was a man standing where the robot had been mere moments before. The man was wearing some black shreds that were probably clothes before the explosion. Through the scraps of clothing, Ace could see something brown and glossy. This strange man turned his head towards Ace began walking towards him. The stranger twisted his arms so that the palms were facing Ace and suddenly the clothes slid off the man's body. "Wait, they didn't slide off his body!" Ace thought, "They slid through his body!"

With the black rags falling to the ground, the body of the man was revealed. The creature appeared to be made entirely of wood. His body gleaned due to the wood's polish and had a grain pattern similar to oak. The wooden man had fingers and toes like a human, but both were absent of nails. The man's face, which had been concealed by a dark hat, was revealed to have painted on eyes and hair. There was a small, human-like mouth on the man which opened and said, "You were present at yesterday's school bus bombing. I saw you knock the explosive robot into the bus. You are guilty of murder. For that, you shall pay!" The man's wooden legs began running towards Ace and the wooden monster extended an arm as if trying to touch Ace.

Ace shifted his legs into a defensive stance and raised his arms to intercept the wooden one. "There were no children aboard! I was framed! Setup!" Ace screamed at the living mannequin. The wooden arm reached Ace, but instead of Ace's hands blocking the grab, the wooden hand slid _through_ the Cyclone Armor. The mannequin's hand stopped sliding only once the hand was in the area of Ace's heart.

"If you are indeed innocent, prove it!" Ace felt a sudden, incredibly sharp pain in his chest. _This jerk is solidifying inside of me!_ Ace activated his turbines in order to boost himself out of the wooden man's grasp, but before they got up to speed, the mannequin balled his left hand into a fist and slammed it into Ace's faceplate. The hit felt as if Rhino himself had punched him and Ace was sent rocketing into the air. Ace landed on the ground, but couldn't see out of his mask due to it having been crumpled by the devastating attack. Ace pressed the manual release button and the mask fell off to the ground. Upon feeling his face, Ace confirmed that the immense, dull pain he was feeling was the result of his muzzle being fractured.

"Ow… What the heck! Who is that guy?!" Ace muttered; the movement of his mouth making his muzzle hurt even more. Ace turned and flew off, away from the mannequin of doom. Ace flew back to his apartment and went immediately went to the restroom, deactivating his armor as he went. Using the mirror to help guide his hands, Ace reset his bones and then shifted back to human form. The pain went away almost immediately. "Phew, my theory that I might heal from injury should I shift forms was correct! Although, I wonder what would've happened if I had shifted back with the bones not lined up? It probably would've been really bad…"

Ace sat on his couch and pondered his second encounter with the robot. "Hmmm, that robot exploded after it was hit with a certain amount of force, it would seem. Also, when it blew up the first time, it only destroyed other robots. Wait a second, what if the whole point of the first robot was to make someone think that they had killed those children! That would be enough to drive anyone crazy; it would also make them desperate. I wonder what would happen if I had fought that second robot normally? Whoever is sending these robots must be trying to drive me insane, but why me?"

There was a quiet cough that came from behind Ace. Ace spun around, desperately looking for a weapon to fend off this intruder. Ace saw that it was the wooden man from earlier. The man held up his hands and said, "It would appear that your conclusion is logical. I myself wondered why such a killer robot could be taken down so easily and then, should what you say be correct, if the first robot didn't kill anyone, the only logical assumption was that it was a set up to make you look bad in the public's eye." Ace hit the mental switch to go into his hybrid form. Upon seeing Ace begin the transformation, the wooden man gestured that he meant no harm. "I mean you no harm for now. I will even offer to extend my help to you in trying to find whoever framed you. Should this framer actually exist, then you will have my sincerest apologies. However, should this framer not exist, do realize that I will take you down. Would you like my help?"

Ace glanced up and down the wooden man, trying to gauge the man's abilities. "Fine, but before I trust you, I must ask a few questions. Who are you, what are you, and what can you do?"

"That is a reasonable request. You may wish to sit down; the story of my origin is by no means a short one." Ace sat down in one of the kitchen chairs and gestured for the wooden man to do the same. The strange man began his story, "There was once a puppeteer that went by the name of Puppiago. He was by far the most successful puppeteer in New York City during the nineties. He began losing the publics interest when other forms of art, like musicals and magic shows, began taking over the live entertainment genre. Steadily Puppiago left audience member after audience member until there were very few left. Puppiago then dedicated his life to creating what he called the Ultimate Puppet Show. He hired many men who were gifted in the fields of science and art to create me; a man-sized marionette. One of Puppiago's requests was that the puppet be sentient and capable of moving itself.

"The scientists did the best that they could and created my body out of an inorganic, wood-like material. I was built to be able to take damage and restore myself as well as to shift my mass and density. With these traits, I could survive being sawed in half, I could walk on water, and I could lift the strongest of weights. Puppiago was, of course, infuriated by these additions saying that I would only ever be useful in a magic show, not a puppet act. The scientists were successful in every aspect of my creation, but they could not give me the sentience that Puppiago wanted. Puppiago hated me at first, but he did put me to work in some of his shows. He would use me like the marionette that I am, but not even my addition saved his business.

"Enraged by his continuous failure, Puppiago began meeting with some shady people, trying to find a way to grant me sentience. Finally, a dark wizard granted Puppiago's wish. He placed a spell upon me and told Puppiago that life could not be freely given. If Puppiago wanted to grant me life, then he would have to sacrifice another. Puppiago was no murderer and told the wizard that he would not do such a deplorable act. The wizard rebutted by saying that, since the spell had already been cast, there was now no other way to grant me sentience.

"Frustrated by the wizard's dark ways, Puppiago tried once more to revitalize his puppet shows, but he quickly ran out of money. After his bankruptcy, Puppiago was forced to live on the street, giving street performances of his puppet acts, always keeping me by his side to remember his dream of the Ultimate Puppet Show.

"One dark, dreary day, a petty thief looking for some change so that he could shoot up again, killed Puppiago for the infinitesimal twenty dollars that he had earned that day. With Puppiago's final breath, he granted me life in exchange of his own. I hunted down the thief and trapped him in a room with me. I was about to enact revenge upon the man when I suddenly remembered how Puppiago swore that he would never kill, even if it meant granting him his life dreams. I deposited the thief at the local police station and decided to devote my life to stopping those who have done wrong." The wooden man leaned back in his chair, thinking about what to say next. "I have not been around long, but even with my limited time here, I have seen heroes rise and fall. Villains seen as heroes in the eyes of the public and I have seen more death than any mortal being should ever see. This is why I believe that you may have been framed."

Ace nodded and took it all in. This wooden man had learned more about being a hero than Ace had. Ace sighed and said, "So, what do I call you? You must have a name."

"While I was never given a formal moniker, I have given myself the name Marion, due to my heritage as a marionette," Marion said.

Ace nodded and replied, "Ok then Marion, you said before that you had seen me hit the robot into the bus. Does that mean that you were at the scene?"

"Yes."

"Did anything about the robot stick out to you?"

"I am unaware of what you mean," Marion said, his head tilting in confusion.

"Was there any details about the robot that could help us to identify the maker?"

"I could see no such thing; however, there are many villains in New York that specialize in robotics. There is the Tinkerer, Alistair Smythe, Mysterio, and the Mandarin."

Ace raised his eyebrows in surprise, "How do you not know the meaning of 'stand out', but you can prattle off information like that with ease?"

Marion nodded his head and said, "I once accessed the internet and read up on as many villains as I could. For some reason, my mind does not lose memories as human minds do, so I read up on every villain I could find a Wikipedia page on. Was this wrong to do?"

Ace sighed and made a mental note to do the same later. "No, not wrong, just weird. Well then, why don't we check up on these villains?"

"None of these villains could have committed these acts. Each one of them is currently serving out life sentences inside prison."

"Well, that complicates things." Ace closed his eyes, deep in thought. "Wait a second!" His eyes snapping open. "The mortician said that the robot children were very realistic. Is it possible that one of these villains might have a robot taking his place in prison?" Ace asked, an idea forming.

"It is possible, but it would be nigh impossible to pull off. The villain would have to be highly skilled at deception. If that is the case, the most likely suspect would be Mysterio as his Modus Operandi is to trick others into believing his lies."

"Eh? Why didn't you mention that before, when I had mentioned that someone was setting me up!" Ace said, angrily slamming his fist on the table for emphasis.

"The thought did not occur to me then. I am not a computer, my mind is as human as yours," Marion said, tapping the side of his head.

"You sure talk like a computer," Ace muttered as he activated his armor. "If Mysterio is out of prison, then he probably won't be going back to any of his old hideouts. Do you know where his old hideouts are? If you do, we can then predict his most likely location by looking at which part of the city he's been in the least."

"I do not have that information."

"Well, then I know someone who does. Time to pay Nick Fury another visit," Ace said. Ace went over to a workbench and began making another faceplate. In the hour that it took to make a replacement, Marion had watched the news channel and found out about two other robot attacks. Luckily, Spider-Man was taking care of one while Iron Man was on the scene of the other.

With the replacement faceplate made, Ace turned towards Marion and asked, "You can fly, can't you?"

"Yes, I adjust my mass and density to make myself more buoyant than air. I can then adjust my body to allow for the passage of air to flow through me. I cannot match your speeds, but I can fly."

Ace sighed, "A simple yes would have sufficed. Very well, follow me to the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier." Ace activated his suit, attached his new faceplate, and flew out the window and up towards the flying ship. Upon boarding, an energetic S.H.I.E.L.D. agent escorted them to the bridge, where the two of them saw an enraged Fury pacing back and forth.

"I don't have time for games, Mathews, what do you want?!" growled the agitated man.

"I need a list of the known hideouts of the villain named Mysterio."

"Fine, McNielson, escort our guests to the information bay and give them what they want. Mathews, you owe me for this."

"Yes, sir." The agent who could only have been McNielson led the two fellows through the labyrinth that was the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier. They stopped at a room full of computer terminals with at least one agent at each station. The agent walked up to one of the other agents in the room, tapped on his shoulder, and motioned for him to get out of the chair. The older looking agent who had been on the computer before, stood up and walked away. McNielson gestured for Ace to use the computer. Ace sat down in a rather comfortable chair and his fingers began flying over the keyboard. Soon enough, Ace printed off a map with red x's marking off each and every safe-house and base of operation that Mysterio had in the last five years.

Ace thanked McNielson and headed with Marion back to his apartment. Once there, Ace lay the map down on the table and began drawing on it with black marker. "There are only two locations that I think Mysterio could be in right now," Ace said, circling two spots on the map with the marker. "The first is a warehouse on the docks and the second is an abandoned building in SoHo. My money is on the warehouse, since Mysterio would've needed room in order to build and store four killer robots."

"Your point sounds most reasonable. Shall we go and give it to him?" Marion asked, attempting to use slang.

"Uh, sure. Let's go. Once we get there, we'll need to scout out the area and see what the situation is like."

"That sounds most agreeable," Marion said, sounding very happy to be going to beat up a villain.

The trip took a good five minutes due to Marion's slower flying abilities. The duo arrived near the docks and landed on the roof of another nearby warehouse. Ace tapped the side of his head to activate something that he had installed with the new faceplate; telescopic vision. The outside of the building looked normal, but upon closer inspection, the windows were revealed to be covered by some sort of sheet. Ace tapped the side of his helmet once more to deactivate the telescopic vision and jumped off of the warehouse he was standing on. He activated his turbines at the last second to slow his fall and land almost noiselessly. There was the tiniest of clacking sounds as Marion landed next to him.

Ace turned towards Marion and said, "Ok, so here's the plan. I'm going to bust down the front door and charge in that way. I'll need you to go in through one of the walls and try to take him by surprise. Use that intangibility trick that you had used to get through my armor that one time."

"Are you sure you don't want me to go through the front door? If there is a trap, which there probably will be, I'll be more likely to be able to get out of danger than you are." Marion had meant to say this seriously, but Ace took great insult at this.

"Excuse me, but I think I could get out of the trap easier! I may not be able to phase, but I can still kick butt!" Ace said in a harsh whisper. Ace spun on his heel and walked over to the front door of the warehouse. He pulled his arms back, so that his chest was extended and activated his chest turbine. There was a small hum that grew into a high pitched whine as the turbine picked up speed. Suddenly air began shooting out of the turbine and hit the door, causing the doors to go flying inwards.

A green-suited man with what appeared to be a fishbowl on his head was standing in the middle of an otherwise vacant warehouse. Ace stepped inside, the cyclone suit's metal boots clanging out against the wooden floor. "Ah, so here you are! The source of my problem!" Ace said, spreading his arms outwards as a taunting gesture.

"Hmm?" Mysterio said, his voice distorted by his helmet. "Ah yes, you are the poor sap who got caught in my trap for Spider-Man! I was wondering if I would be seeing more of you. Too bad I'll have to kill you before you can make a name for yourself."

"Eh? You kill me?! I don't think so!" Ace lifted his arm and pointed his turbine at Mysterio's chest.

"I don't think so, robot boy!" Mysterio said as a sudden plume of green smoke encircled him. Ace fired his turbine, but the smoke did not get blown away.

"How in the world?!" Ace muttered. The smoke dissipated on its own and Mysterio had vanished. In his place stood Spider-Man. "Ah, Spider-Man! Did you happen to see where Mysterio slipped off to?" Ace asked, stepping towards his Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Acquaintance. Without giving a response, Spider-Man lifted an arm and fired a web-line that slammed into Ace's eyes, blinding him. "Agh!" Ace said, trying to rip the adhesive webbing off. "What'd you do that for?!" Ace managed to rip the gooey substance off just in time to see a red, booted foot slam into his faceplate. Ace was knocked backwards and fell on his back. "Oh, it's on now!" Ace said, activating his arm, leg, and chest turbines. Spider-Man swung towards Ace again, but Ace managed to fire a blast of air at him faster than he could react.

Spider-Man flew through the air and landed with a loud thud near one of the walls. Marion slipped through the wall and saw Spider-Man lying on the ground. After taking a quick look around, Marion confirmed that it had only been Spider-Man and Ace in the room. Marion pointed a finger at Ace and said, "Hey! I trusted you! Spider-Man has proven himself a hero time and time again! I was right, you are a villain!" Marion began sprinting towards Ace.

Ace shouted, "He attacked me first! I was only acting in self-defense!" Realizing that Marion was not going to slow down or stop, Ace lifted his arm and fired a blast at the approaching man. Marion phased through the blast, but solidified immediately afterwards and changed his mass to deliver a heavy attack. Ace took this opportunity and launched a shot of air out of his chest turbine, sending the wooden man flying through the air. "I think that the Spider-Man in here with us is either a fake, or has been mind-controlled by Mysterio! That is his M.O. after all!"

Marion was confused. Who was a hero? Who was a villain? All of this was too much for the man. Marion picked himself off of the ground and walked over to where the motionless Spider-Man lay. He reached down and pulled off Spider-Man's mask. There was a shiny, metal, robotic head under the mask with some sort of plastic prosthetic nose. The robot's eyes suddenly activated once more and the robot Spider-Man lashed out with a ferocious kick. The robot's leg slammed clear through Marion's chest an out his back.

Marion followed up by shifting his mass and delivering a super strong punch that crumpled in the robot's head. Marion then walked backwards so that the robotic leg slid back through the splintery hole in his chest. Ace stared through the hole, seeing that Marion was hollow. "Uh, are you ok?" Ace asked, the hole seemingly not to phase the wooden man.

"Oh, I seem to have sustained damage during the fight. Let me fix that." Marion closed his eyes and the wood around the hole seemed to stretch inwards, filling in the hole. After the process was complete, Marion tapped the center of his chest, where the hole had been and said, "Ah, all better! Oh and I'm sorry for doubting you back then. It's so hard to tell with the events that have been happening lately."

"It's cool, I would've done the same if I had walked in to see you having knocked out Spider-Man," Ace said, awkwardly shuffling his feet, not knowing exactly what to say.

"Oh well, forgive and forget, shall we?"

"Sure."

"Oh and by the way, Cyclone, I could've totally taken you down," Marion said, opting to use Ace's alias in case there were hidden cameras or microphones.

"In your dreams, mannequin! You wouldn't stand a chance!" Ace bantered, letting his ego take over. The two of them walked out of the warehouse. Once clear of any potential microphones, Ace turned to Marion and said, "Hey, I think he's in the other location. This time, I say we go in together."

"I concur with your assessment. Shall we be off, partner?"

The last word hung in the air awkwardly until Ace responded with, "Yeah, Marion, let's do this!" The two of them flew over to the abandoned building and landed on the roof. Ace opened the rooftop access door and ushered Marion inside. The two of them descended the stairs and saw, once more, the green-suited Mysterio. "Welcome to my humble home, heroes! I do hope that you're not going to cause a ruckus."

Ace tapped Marion on the shoulder, giving him the signal to attack. Marion charged forward and altered his mass to try and end the fight in one blow. He was quite surprised when he fell through Mysterio's body and hit the floor. Mysterio's body wavered momentarily and then disappeared. "Ah, ah, ah." Mysterio's voice said, echoing from some hidden speaker, "I did warn you not to cause a ruckus. Now I'm afraid I'll have to kill you." A metal slab slammed shut over the doors in the room and then the roomed filled with the same green smoke as was in the warehouse.

When the smoke cleared, Ace spotted what had to be at least twenty Mysterios. They all raised gloved hands and pointed at Ace. All of their fingers glowed and the voices of two dozen Mysterios said in unison, "Farewell noble hero. Though I did not know you long, it was fun to mess with you. Send my regards to the devil!" Ace hit the deck as what looked like several dozen lasers flew above him. He fired his turbines at the nearest Mysterio, but when the air hit, that Mysterio simply wavered and vanished. "Uh… ok?" Ace activated his turbines once more and did a spinning motion, causing his blasts to hit all around him. The Mysterios in the room all seemed to waver and vanish.

There was a booming laughter and one of the inner doors opened. Ace shrugged his shoulders and helped Marion back to his feet. The duo walked through the doorway and found a staircase leading down to the next level. The next floor was the hollowed out husk, with only the support beams still showing. There, standing in the middle of the empty space, stood the Rhino. "Oh, that has GOT to be a robot. I swear that the Rhino got put in jail last week when I fought him."

Marion sized up the Rhino and said, "Don't worry, I've got this sucker, you go on and take down the big man himself."

"You sure? Don't underestimate this guy…"

"I'm sure, now go!" Ace headed over to the corner of the room and used one of his turbine-enhanced punches to knock a hole in the cement that separated this floor from the next. Ace gave one final glance at Marion, who was giving him a thumbs-up, and jumped down the newly created hole.

Marion turned towards the Rhino, extended his right hand so that the palm was facing the ceiling, and waved his fingers, beckoning the much larger opponent. Naturally, the Rhino lowered his head and began charging. Marion quickly went into phase mode and the lumbering man went right through him. Once clear of the behemoth, Marion made himself super dense and upped his mass. While the Rhino was still turning to try and face him, Marion darted forward and delivered a deft jab to the side of Rhino's head. The lumbering giant took the blow and stumbled to the side, holding his head. He wasn't stunned for long and rushed forward, presenting Marion with a jab of his own. The impact knocked Marion away, but luckily Marion was dense enough to where the punch merely cracked his shell, instead of breaking it.

Marion slid his fingers over the cracks and they faded away, his body becoming whole once more. Marion further upped his density and mass, lowered his head, and charged the Rhino. The Rhino accepted the challenge and did the same. At the last second, Marion increased his mass yet again and heard a loud crunch as his head slammed into the Rhino's. Marion stumbled back, a bit dazed from the impact and his head riddled with cracks from the impact. There was a loud 'thunk' as the Rhino's body fell to the ground, his head completely caved in. "Hmm… I wonder what would happen if I did that to the real thing, instead of a weaker, robot version? Maybe I'll find out one day…"

Marion, finished with his fight and having healed the cracks in his head, went over and jumped down the hole that Ace had made. Upon landing, Marion saw a collapsed Mysterio with Ace standing over him. Marion waved and said, "Hey, I defeated the Rhino all by myself! I thought he'd be a bit harder, even though he was just a robot."

"Oh, hey Marion," Ace said. "I've dealt with Mysterio and I couldn't have done it without your help! Thanks buddy!"

Marion seemed puzzled. Had the fight with the menacing Mysterio really been that easy? Marion walked forward when the ground opened up beneath his feet. The sudden hole took Marion by surprise and he didn't have time to his mass or density before he slammed into a cold, cement floor, his torso becoming cracked from the impact. Marion looked up and saw that he must have fallen a good forty feet. He healed himself and made himself lighter as well as less dense, but when he prepared to jump, a trapdoor closed, blocking out the light.

Up above, "Ace" tapped a button on his wrist. Mysterio and his bodies trembled and then faded away, revealing the truth. Ace was the one crumpled on the floor while Mysterio stood over him. When Ace had fallen through the ceiling, he had taken Mysterio by surprise, but a few concussive blasts from Mysterios gloves dealt with the upstarting hero.

Mysterio applauded himself on such a good show, but his applause was cut short when he felt a sudden, dull pain in his stomach. Ace, who Mysterio had thought to be unconscious, had lifted one of his legs and had fired a blast from his leg turbine. The blast sent Mysterio flying against the wall, the impact cracking the back of his helmet.

Mysterio pointed one of his gloves at Ace, but was distracted by a sudden crash as Marion crashed through the floor. Mysterio fired the concussive blast at Marion as he made a dash for the exit. The force from the blast combined with the low density of Marion resulted in his right arm being blown off at the shoulder. Ace, who was on his feet by this point, activated his back turbine and flew toward Mysterio, intercepting the crook before he could run out the door. Ace slammed the villain against the wall and felt the man go limp.

Ace hefted Mysterio onto his shoulder and turned to face Marion who was looking at his right shoulder. Marion's arm was rapidly growing back and even Ace found it interesting to watch the process. It looked as if Marion's body was stretching and looked similar to a tree growing. Once the arm was complete once more, Ace beckoned to one of the windows and the duo jumped out of the building, each landing with ease. Seemingly out of nowhere, Spider-Man swung down and landed in front of the duo. The masked web-slinger had heard some commotion coming from the building and decided to come and check it out.

Upon seeing Spider-Man suddenly appear, Ace activated one of his arm turbines and pointed it at the webbed wall-crawler. Marion upped his density and mass, while moving into a fighting stance. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, there guys, it's me, your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man!" The two friends looked at each other and began laughing. "What, is there some sort of inside joke I'm missing?" Spider-Man asked.

-To be continued in: Cyclone 03: Doomed-


	4. Cyclone 03: Doomed

Cyclone 03: Doomed

"So, are you going to make the deal?" A calm Nick Fury said.

Across the metal table, Ace, who had been reviewing a packet of papers, looked up and said, "Yes, I think I will." He signed a line at the bottom of the last page and slid the packet to Fury, who shook Ace's hand.

"Thank you for your services, we're proud to accept you as an official S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist," Fury said as he escorted the Ace out of the small room and into one of the nearby hangars. Ace had reservations about becoming a S.H.I.E.L.D. funded scientist, but he had blown all the money that he had made while in school on purchasing his penthouse apartment and then having to completely rebuild it after the prior week's incidents.

Once the refurnishing of the apartment was complete, Marion had suggested that Ace have a separate location as his base of operations, at least for his Cyclone front. "If I could follow you to your house, think of all the villains that could, especially now that you're becoming better known," Marion had said. Ace took his friend's advice and decided that it wasn't the brightest idea to have his personal home as a base, so he began looking up various locations. He found an abandoned factory a couple of miles out of the city that had an abandoned subway tunnel leading into the city. This tunnel had been closed due to the often occurrences of the tunnels flooding, but it was structurally sound.

Ace had immediately began negotiations with the real estate company that owned the land, but once Ace realized that he had only a few hundred dollars left over, he was forced to end the negotiations. Ace, without a steady source of income yet, approached S.H.I.E.L.D. and made an offer that he would allow S.H.I.E.L.D. to purchase any technology Ace made that was not part of his superhero endeavors. In exchange, S.H.I.E.L.D. would purchase and renovate both the abandoned factory and the old subway tunnel to be used by Ace for whatever he wanted. Also, Ace would receive a limitless budget for his science related experiments as well as S.H.I.E.L.D. would give him a reasonable flat fee for any tech that they purchase from him. In addition to the flat fee, S.H.I.E.L.D. would present royalties to Ace should they decide to reproduce the tech.

Ace had done the math while researching the factory and the time it would take to get from there to Times Square via the tunnels was roughly five minutes. It was also convenient to be able to dart into any subway station and be able to head back to his base undetected. He still had full intention to live in his penthouse along with Marion, who had decided to stick around after last week's mishaps. Marion had brought up the point that he could achieve greater goods by teaming up with Ace, than he could alone. It also helped that Ace had presented Marion with plans for a machine that could print off rubber, prosthetic faces that Marion could wear.

Once at the hangar, Ace turned and waved to Nick Fury, who wore a grin on his face as if he was a child and had gotten the toy he had wanted for Christmas. He then jumped out of the helicarrier and activated his armor in mid-air. He flew down, into the city and landed in an alley. Deactivating his armor and switching to human form before leaving the alley, Ace then walked over to his apartment building. He walked into the elevator where Stanly stood, reading today's Daily Bugle. "Ugh, why do you read that rag, Stanly?"

Stanly pressed the penthouse button and responded, "I consider the Daily Bugle to be entertainment, not news. It's fun for me to see how much that silly J. Jonah Jameson twists things that I've seen with my own two eyes! Speaking of twisting, I heard that you now have a roommate, but I've never seen the fellow. Why is that?"

Ace, suddenly and unexpectedly put on the spot responded with, "Uh… he's a real health nut. He's been sick, so he hasn't been able to do his daily jogs and he's been making up for it by taking the stairs every day. I'm sure he'll be taking the elevator soon enough." The real reason that Marion hadn't been taking the elevator was because Ace had yet to make the prosthetic face machine and his old disguise tricks wouldn't fool the ever-observant Stanly. The elevator dinged and Ace stepped out.

He walked into the living room to find that Marion was watching TV. "Well," Ace said, "I've sealed the deal with Fury. I don't like it, but for now, it's the only way for us to make money honestly. Heck, I even got Fury to agree to him footing the bill for the factory and the renovations needed. Supposedly, they're going to have that done by the end of the week, so until then, we have to make do."

"And when were you planning on having my face machine done?" Marion said. He had been hounding Ace about this ever since Ace had shown him the plans.

"As soon as the factory is ours, I can put the order for the budget to make that. Until then, you'll just have to take the stairs. Ace went to the fridge and grabbed a cold soda pop. Cracking it open, he took a seat by Marion and began scanning the news for reports of villainy. Unfortunately, Ace's police scanner had been broken during the raid on his apartment last week and he didn't have the parts to make a new one, so the duo's only option was to watch the news. Unfortunately for the bored duo, the city was quiet.

Sighing from boredom, Ace retired to his bedroom for the night, leaving Marion, who didn't need to sleep, watching the late show. Marion did not like being alone all night, but since there was nothing for him to do, he put up with it.

Growing tired of watching celebrity gossip, Marion turned off the television and went over to one of the few remaining computers. He went on the internet and began looking for some games to play. He found an interesting game that involved catapulting birds, some cheap knockoff of a phone game with a similar concept, and played that for a few hours.

At a little after midnight, the computer and lights suddenly flicked off. Marion went to the wall and flipped the light switch, but the lights didn't turn on. "A power outage in New York City?" Marion looked out the window and saw the neighboring buildings still had their lights on. "Huh, someone must have flipped a breaker or whatnot." Marion picked up the phone to call down to the help desk, but there was no dial tone. "The phone's dead too? Hmmm…"

The lights flicked on and Marion sighed, "Well, at least it wasn't something suspicious." Returning to the computer, something caught the puppet man's eye. There was an envelope on the table. "We don't get mail and I know we don't have spare envelopes…" Marion walked over to the table and saw that the there was a stylized "D" on the back. The "D" was imprinted in a wax seal like the ones that were used in medieval Europe. Marion flipped it over and saw that it was addressed to Ace. Marion went to the master bedroom and knocked, waking the slumbering genius that lay within.

"What is it?" Ace's tired voice came from inside.

"You've received a letter in a most peculiar way. The power went out and when it came back on, the letter was on our table."

"Eh? That's weird. Come in and show it to me." Marion opened the door and entered. He handed the strange letter to Ace, who clumsily popped the seal and pulled out a single sheet of high-quality paper. Ace read the letter aloud, "Dear Mr. Mathews, You are formally invited to dine with his majesty, Victor von Doom, at his estate on the eve of the twenty-fourth. You may bring your wooden friend if you wish, but be warned, not showing will be an insult to Latveria and Doom himself." In place of a signature, there was just an ink version of the seal.

"Hmm…" Marion said, "It would appear that we do not have much of a choice. I think we'd better go. It'd be unwise to offend someone as powerful as Doom."

"I have to agree. The twenty-fourth is tomorrow, isn't it?"

"Close, today is the twenty-fourth; it's a quarter after midnight." Marion said, pointing at the digital clock in the corner of the room.

"Ok, well, we better not tell Fury about this. He'd throw a hissy fit and probably stop us from going. Plus, I might be able to see that backstabbing Sasha."

Marion had heard Ace talk of Sasha before, but he never asked about her as Ace clearly had some sort of deep-seeded grudge against her, whoever she was. Marion shrugged and walked out of the bedroom, returning to the computer to begin again on the bird game. Ace was wide awake from the news and couldn't get back to sleep, so he went back out to the living room. He turned on the 24/7 News channel and zoned out in front of it.

Hours must have passed and light began seeping into the room. After making a rich, energy providing breakfast for himself, Ace headed downstairs and out of the building. His plan was to go and see if he could talk to an Avengers representative about becoming a member. He had been approached by the famous Captain America a few days earlier, but had been so swamped with trying to manage everything that Ace had not had time to stop by the Avengers Mansion and get formally introduced. The same invitation had been made to Marion, but the man declined. Ace didn't know why Marion had passed up the opportunity of a lifetime, but he didn't push the issue and neither did Captain America.

Ace ducked into an alley and once he was sure that there was no one watching, he triggered the mental switch to transform into his mostly human, partially panther, hybrid form. Ace then hit the mental trigger that activated his power armor, which he nicknamed the Cyclone Suit. Ace had designed the suit in such a way that it could only ever be activated while in his Hybrid form; in fact, the part of the brain that the mental trigger for the suit resided in exists only in certain animals and does not exist in humans. He had done this so that his secret identity could be virtually airtight.

Ace activated the many turbines on his suit and flew off, out of the alley and towards his destination. After only a few minutes of travel, Ace touched down on the doorstep of the mansion. Ace pressed the button near the door that could only have been the doorbell. After a few minutes without a response, Ace pressed it again. A voice with a thick British accent spoke out of a speaker near the door, "I am sorry, sir, but the Avengers are not currently in the mansion. Can I help you with something?"

"Uh, sure; I was told by Captain America to come down someday and be tested to see if I could join the Avengers," Ace said, not sure exactly what to say.

"Ah, you must be the new hero Cyclone. Unfortunately, the Avengers are off planet solving a delicate alien situation. I would advise that you come back later, once they are back. If I could have your number, I will contact you once they arrive."

Ace nodded in understanding and rattled off his mobile number. He did not have a cell phone, but he did have an inner-ear implant that could send and receive phone calls. If need be, Ace could always switch the number on the phone if he started getting spam calls. After exchanging thanks, Ace flew off a few blocks north and into the subway station. There were only a few people milling about since it was during business hours, so Ace was able to slip into the tunnels without much attention. He began flying through the tunnels, getting used to the extra navigation required to ensure a safe flight in such enclosed quarters.

After a few hours of practice, Ace ducked down a side tunnel and deactivated his armor. With one more, quick glance around, Ace then switched back to his human form and walked out onto one of the platforms. He walked up and out of the subways, arriving near his apartment building. With a quick trip upstairs, Ace found that Marion was out. He glanced at the clock on the oven and saw that it was noon. He threw together a light lunch and then headed out to try and find Marion. They would need to leave soon, in order for them to be respectfully early in Latveria.

One of Marion's favorite places to go was sporting events. The fans there were so oblivious that no one yet had recognized the fact that he was made of wood instead of flesh and bone. There was a minor league baseball game going on, so Ace headed to the stadium. Ace managed to slip past the ticket gates and made it into the crowd of fans. It was hard to tell individual people apart, so Ace just looked for a person wearing an unnatural amount of black, which is what Marion normally wore. He spotted such an individual across the way.

Ace made his way through the stadium's labyrinthine interior over to the other side. He made it to the person wearing all black and realized that it was some heavyset old man. "Ugh, where could he be?!" Ace muttered to himself. Suddenly, there was a tap on his shoulder and he turned to face the tapper. It was Marion. He stood there in a sporting outfit complete with a long-sleeve T-shirt, white gloves, long sweat-pants, tennis shoes, and a baseball cap. "There you are! We need to leave soon in order to get to you-know-where in time." There was no real need for secrecy, but who knew where Fury's spies might be.

Marion nodded his head and the two of them left the game, slipping out one of the side exits. They entered a nearby subway station and when nobody was looking, they faded into the shadows of the tunnels.

The duo found an old service tunnel that they used as cover. Marion lowered his density to the point where he became intangible and his outfit fell through him. Ace activated his two mental switches in succession and then they were both ready to go, the entire process lasting only a couple of seconds. They went deeper down the service tunnel and exited out in one of the southern subway tunnels. They had memorized the subway systems and parts of the sewer system, since they were going to be using both for travel throughout the expansive city.

They exited out through a station that was used infrequently and flew up into the air. They leveled off and began flying east, across the Atlantic. The flight was uneventful and the two of them had to land in Germany for a little while so that Ace's Nitrogravi engine, the energy producing device that powered his suit, could cool down. They made it to the outskirts of Latveria in their next trip. Once they landed at the border, Ace deactivated his turbines and Marion raised his density and mass back to normal so that he could walk comfortably.

The two of them were greeted by a robot that said, "Welcome to Latveria; home of some of the greatest scientific advancements and is ruled by the benevolent Victor von Doom! If you sirs will follow me, I'll be escorting you by hover-car to Doomstadt!" Ace was surprised by the hospitality and followed the robot with Marion not far behind.

As the car traveled the countryside, Ace was shocked by what he saw. He had been expecting dark forests with dreary swamps and an enslaved populace. What he actually saw were rich, evergreen forests, rolling fields, and a populace that lived more luxuriously than all but the richest of Americans. The robot explained some of the country to the two visitors. "In Latveria, there is no conflict! Nor is there hunger or poverty! Each family is given an acre of land as well as a two story, Elizabethan style house! The citizens go to their jobs with complete faith, due to the fact that the benevolent Doom provides the best job security! Latverian workdays are eight hours long and each worker has a three day long break at some point during a week, so that businesses can remain open all week long! Any time that the economy decreases, benevolent Doom provides some technological boost so that the economy becomes stronger and rebounds!"

The robot kept prattling on for the entire trip, but Ace began tuning him out at some point. Marion kept whipping his head back and forth, trying to see all of the sights as they flew past. The car eventually docked with a large castle that had to be Doomstadt. Once fully docked, the robot guide escorted the visitors through a maze of hallways until they reached a room with a long, oaken table in the center. The table was laden with food of all kinds, ranging from roast chicken, to heaps of baked potatoes, and there were even cuts of steak that Ace had never seen before. Inside of his suit, Ace felt a bit of drool escape his lips.

The robot suddenly stiffened and a different sounding voice came out saying, "The Honorable Victor von Doom has arrived!" Upon hearing this, the duo turned towards a pair of gigantic wooden doors that swung open to reveal a man in a suit of armor that had a large, flowing, green cape attached. The metal mask on the stranger's face revealed that it was none other than the notorious Doctor Doom. "Welcome, guests. I hope that your travels were not too rough."

"They were quite pleasant actually," Ace said, trying his best not to say anything that might offend the madman that stood before him.

Doom gestured to the lavish display and said, "Eat, my friends! After eating our fill, we shall discuss our business!" Doom looked towards Marion and added, "Is there anything special that the chefs might prepare for someone as unique as yourself?"

"Sorry, sir, but I do not consume food. My body does not need sustenance to function," Marion said in a steady rate, his attempts at pacifying the warmongering villain also audibly apparent.

"Very well, now, I do recommend the chicken, it is most excellent," Doom said. The intimidating man took a seat at the head of the table, so Ace and Marion took the seats opposite him. A servant cleared away the dishes that had been laid for Marion and then disappeared into the woodwork.

Ace felt entirely uncomfortable with the fact that he was eating a madman's food and not trying to stop whatever nefarious plot that Doom had to be cooking up. Ace had left his armor on, removing only his helmet so that he could eat. He did not trust Doom for a second, but to refuse the man's hospitality would undoubtedly provoke him. The food was indeed delicious, but Ace's stomach turned, wondering if there had been any poisons or nanobots in it.

Once Ace had eaten his fill, a servant cleared away his dishes. Doom motioned for the two men to follow him and then led them through his castle into a meeting room. Doom motioned for the duo to sit down and then stood behind a podium. Ace and Marion took their seats in what had to have been the most comfortable chairs in all of existence. "Pay attention," the deranged dictator said. "For Doom does not repeat himself. There is a threat to the universe itself that has appeared recently and you are its originator." Doom pointed an armored finger at Ace, who was confused.

"You mean the thing that broke into our universe while I was out dealing with Mysterio?" Ace said, hoping that he was not correct.

"You are correct," Doom said. "My agent was there when it happened. The creature was unsure of what exactly was happening, but left the scene before my agent could report to me." Doom snapped his fingers and a long-haired Sasha appeared from behind the duo. She placed a piece of paper on the table in front of Ace and then went to stand next to Doom. "That paper is the translation of the inscription on the base of that statue."

Ace picked it up and read, "Let none who move stop before the Demon Rex, lest he be free once more." Ace handed it to Marion, who gave no visible reaction.

"What you did, Ace Mathews, was free a Demon of unknown strength. This demon apparently has some ability to travel between universes, because it destroyed your probe and afterwards followed it back to your apartment. Doom shall provide you with plans for a scanner that will track the location of the creature and will leave you to take him down," Doom said, anger audible in his voice.

"So let me get this straight," Ace said. "You, the all-mighty Doom, are asking us, two unknown heroes, to take down an evil that not even you know how strong it is?" As soon as the words left Ace's mouth, he realized that it was a mistake.

Doom slammed his fist on the podium, splintering the wood. "Doom requires help from no one! You are to deal with this, because you are responsible for it! Should you not take down this Demon Rex, Doom shall hunt you down and kill you himself!"

Ace felt warm streams of liquid flowing down his leg. "Yes sir, right away sir."

Doom tossed an envelope to Ace. "That is the schematics to the device that will be able to track the Demon Rex. The Demon seems to absorb all energy around it and that will track where the energy is being pulled to. That is all the assistance Doom will provide, now be gone from Dooms sight!"

Ace tucked the letter into one of the compartments on his suit and then stood up to leave. He and Marion were escorted to the main gates. On their flight back, Marion said, "Well, that went better than expected. We managed to avoid a conflict with Doom."

"Maybe so, but I won't be able to create the scanner until this weekend, when the factory is ready." The duo made it home safely and Ace immediately hit the showers to clean himself up.

The next few days passed uneventfully, with the duo only being able to stop some minor crimes and without seeing a single supervillain. When a disguised S.H.I.E.L.D. agent came to their front door and told Ace that their factory and tunnel system was complete, they headed over immediately to see what it looked like. The incredibly massive main building looked run down and abandoned from the exterior, but the interior looked like a state-of-the-art laboratory. It had a chemistry lab that came with a fully stocked chemical storage unit and a top of the line electron microscope with variable zoom, allowing for it to double as a normal microscope. There were chemistry work stations fully stocked with beakers and vials galore. There were several different kinds of chemical showers for any emergency. In a separate room, there were a dozen, large computers that had twelve terabytes of both memory and RAM each. Ace wiped the nerd drool off of his face and walked over to another door. Down a short hallway was a building that had huge stacks of every kind of metal and plastic known to man. There was a tiny vat of liquid metal bubbling in a corner with two guards standing watch over it.

"Oh Dear Lord, I have Adamantium!" Ace whispered. Marion patted Aces shoulder when the man had begun sobbing with joy. The rest of the tour showed Ace that he had access to a fully equipped drafting station as well as several workstations for cutting, melting, and manipulating metal. Ace opened the final door and saw a dark, unlit tunnel stretching out from behind it.

"That's the tunnel you wanted," said a voice that came from directly behind Ace. He jumped from surprise and saw that it was Nick Fury. "It leads straight to one of the subway tunnels that branch off of Times Square Station. The entrance on that side is a maintenance access door that is locked. It's genetically keyed so that you and Marion can access it. If you want to change the genetic keys, you can do so at the computer terminal."

Fury continued, "The tunnel does have compression units built in so that it will appear to be caved in, unless one of the doors is properly unlocked. This prevents people from simply breaking down the door and walking in." Fury jabbed his thumb towards the lab and said to Ace, "Now get to work! You don't have time to just stand there and gawk!"

"Yes, sir!" Ace said enthusiastically. He almost couldn't resist the urge to skip over to the work stations. He immediately sat down at the drafting station and got to work.

Fury turned to face Marion and said, "Keep an eye on this one. Make sure he sleeps every once in a while, I don't want him to pass out and ruin some real scientific advancements." Marion nodded and watched the intimidating man walk away.

With his new laboratory, Ace managed to create the scanner from the schematics that Doom had provided and installed the small scanning device onto the Cyclone suit's right arm. Ace pressed the power button and the screen flickered to life. The screen was a solid, light green. "Uh, either Dooms calculations were off, which is improbable, or this 'Demon Rex' thingy isn't in our universe. Oh well, if it's not here, then it's not my problem." Ace tapped the side of the screen flipped it upside down, so that it blended in perfectly with his suit.

Ace spent the next few hours redesigning the portal section of his probe and then got to work reproducing it. This time, Ace wanted to make it more effective and sustainable, so that it could be used even if there wasn't an external power source.

The next day, the final project sat in front of Ace. Ace went to work hardwiring the portal generating device to the Nitrogravi engine in his suit and then ran some wiring through his suit's left arm, connecting the portal generation device to a small ten-key keypad. This keypad, like the scanner on his right arm, could be flipped over and would be virtually undetectable. The keypad had a screen that had six blank spots grouped into pairs. Through the keypad, Ace could enter the six-digit, universal keycode that would link the portal from his current universe to the next. Ace had built this so that he could travel into other universes and dimensions to collect samples and do research.

At some point during the next night, Ace came up with an idea to link the scanning device to the portal generator so that the scanner could then scan the alternate universes in search for the Demon Rex. He did it the next morning and began the scan. The process of scanning all the other universes was a long one, but within six hours, the scanner began beeping wildly. Ace looked at the coordinates for the universe being scanned and saw that they were 64,86,27. Ace jotted this down on a piece of scratch paper and then turned the scanner off. "Whatever the demon is up to, I'm sure he can wait a couple more hours for me," Ace muttered. This got Marion's attention, which had previously been focused on a flash game.

"Did you find it?" The wooden man asked.

"Yeah, but I'm building a different kind of scanner. This scanner will be able to pick up signals from the other universes, sort of like a multi-universal police scanner. It'll allow me to hear any distress calls that people send, so long as they send it in the form of a radio or micro wave."

"Ok, so what's the point of it?"

"If the Demon Rex is attacking an uninhabited universe, or one filled with only low level life, then there's no point going after him, right?" Ace asked rhetorically.

"I guess," Marion said, not agreeing with Ace, but also not wishing to start an argument with him.

This new scanner was far more complex than the first one and had more intricate technology than the portal. It took a couple of days for Ace to draft the scanner, perfect the math required for the scanner, and to actually build the scanner. Once the multi-universal distress scanner, which Ace called the MDS, was finished, Ace presented the scanner to Marion and said, "Would you do the honors of turning on the scanner?"

Marion rolled his eyes and pressed a button on the front of the scanner; static came pouring out of the speaker. Ace pressed some buttons on the front of the MDS until a readout said the numbers 64,86,27, the coordinates for where the Demon Rex had been a few days before. A female voice came blaring out of the speaker, "This is a distress signal being sent on all frequencies! This universe is collapsing! Reality itself is being torn apart! If there is anyone out there who could rescue me, please do so! I am the last human left! Please…"

The voice faded out and static took its place. Ace immediately flipped open the keypad on his left wrist and punched in the numbers 64,86,27. An oval the length and width of the Cyclone suit opened in the air in front of the duo. They saw the interior of a ship and were about to step through, when suddenly a woman came flying out of the portal, crashing into Ace and the two of them landed on the floor with a loud thud.

Ace saw that the woman was around 5'2"and that she had shiny metal bands around her forearms and shins. There was also a shield-like metal plate that covered the woman's face. There was nothing on the shiny metal of the mask other than two slots through which Ace could see hazel eyes. The woman had long, brown hair tied back into a ponytail that hung down her back, stopping just above her waistline. Her slender body was covered from the neck down in a dark blue suit that looked like a diving suit. The woman had a katana in its sheath on her back and had a thick, white belt with pouches all along it on her waist. She pointed at the portal and shouted in a commanding voice, "Get that portal closed, now!"

Ace fumbled to hit the deactivation key and then jammed it with his finger. In the second before the portal closed, Ace saw the ship on the other side of the portal fade, turning to white. The portal closed mere moments before the whiteness reached it. "Oh, thank God!" the woman said. She rolled off of Ace and sat with her back against the wall.

Ace rolled off of his back and stood up, looking at the strange woman. "Ok, now you're safe. Who are you and what happened back there?" Ace asked, pointing his thumb behind him, where the portal had been.

The woman sighed, stood, and said, "My name is Alicia Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D." Alicia extended her hand to shake.

"Uh… Any relation to Nick Fury?" Ace asked, shaking her hand and hoping that it was just a funny coincidence.

"If by Nick Fury, you mean the founder of S.H.I.E.L.D. and first Director, then yes; I am his descendant. There are roughly thirty-six generations between us."

Marion piped in with, "So you're from the future?"

"Seeing as this place isn't destroyed, this is not my past. Also, judging by this man's suit," she pointed at Ace. "This earth is far more technologically advanced, despite it being farther back in the timeline. On a side note, why are you wearing a wooden suit? That can't be effective in combat."

Marion looked disappointed, "This isn't a suit, lady, this is me. I'm a living puppet."

"A living puppet? So there's magic on this Earth, eh? You brought up Nick Fury, do you think you can take him to me?"

"Better yet, I'll come to you," said Nick Fury's unmistakable voice from the shadows of the room. He had a dozen S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with him, all of which had guns pointed towards the newcomer. Fury turned towards Ace and said, "We picked up another, similar energy spike here so we came as fast as we could. Is this the intruder?"

"No, sir," Alicia said, making sure not to do or say anything that would provoke the gun-wielding agents. "My universe was being destroyed at the hands of a creature who called himself Rex. Two years ago, he broke into our universe and we've been fighting him ever since. Our best efforts were nothing to him and he made short work of our armies. The rest of humanity was forced to go into hiding in order to survive and even that wasn't enough. The demon's presence was unraveling the fabric of reality and these two," she pointed at Ace and then Marion, "saved my life by opening up a portal."

"And you are," Fury said, raising an eyebrow.

"Alicia Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D."

Both of Fury's eyebrows rose at this statement. "Oh, so you were director of S.H.I.E.L.D. back in your dimension? Well, I'm the director in mine; you're not getting my job." The evenness of Fury's voice showed that he was being serious.

"I wouldn't dream of taking command away from the legendary Nicholas Fury. Besides, I'm sure you have to deal with a lot more things than I did. In my dimension, there is," Alicia gave a half-cough and then corrected herself, "was no such thing as magic."

"We have more than magic, we also have superhumans!" Ace added.

Fury shot a harsh glance at Ace for speaking out of turn. "You have any uses?" Fury was being overly blunt.

Alicia did not like Fury; that was clear. "Pardon me, sir, but I did not become director of S.H.I.E.L.D. by being useless. I was my world's best fighter, not to mention that I was in charge of a vast military force. I am not only physically capable of taking care of myself, but also mentally so."

"Good, now the only question is; do you wish to join S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"Sir, with all due respect, I've climbed my way up to the top of S.H.I.E.L.D. once, I have no wish to go through that grueling process again." Alicia was starting to get annoyed.

"Very well," Fury said, shocking Ace with the fact that he was backing down so easily. "You may go your own way."

"Thank you sir, now I have some questions for these two, if you'll excuse us." Alicia said, waving her hand in the general direction of Ace and Marion. Fury nodded and retreated once more into the shadows. Alicia turned and said, "So, I take it that you two aren't just scientists?"

Ace was about to speak when Marion cut in with, "Nope, we're bona-fide heroes! We've stopped the Menacing Mysterio and Ace here has stopped the Ravaging Rhino not once, but twice!" Marion was clearly bursting with pride at this.

"I don't know who either of those are. Tell you what, why don't you take me on your next mission so that we can see if I'll be of any use as a hero." Alicia reached up to her mask and began to slide it up. She had to pull her ponytail through the strap in order to get the mask off. The face underneath had flawless, ivory-colored skin. Alicia clearly didn't wear makeup, but had no reason to. She put the mask into one of the larger pouches on her belt and then looked back at the boys. No one could see it due to his armor, but Ace's mouth was agape. He had seen supermodels that didn't look this hot. Ace nudged Marion who looked at him, clearly not understanding what the bro-nudge meant.

Ace shut his mouth and deactivated his armor. Once she spotted Ace's head, which resembled a panthers head due to him being in hybrid form, Alicia took a short jump backward, her hand resting on the grip of her sword, her feet widespread in a combat stance. Ace rose his hands and said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm a good guy, remember?"

Alicia's grip on the sword lessened for a moment and then she stood straight. "My apologies, it will… take some time in order for me to get used to the things of this world."

"It's cool," Ace said, shrugging. He activated the mental switch and his body resumed its normal, human state.

"So, are you a human or a monster?" Alicia said.

"Human," Ace replied, ignoring the monster jab.

"Huh, this world is freaky."

"You've got that right," Marion said depressingly. He turned and walked away.

Ace went and sat down in one of the computer lab chairs, offering a second one to Alicia. "So, if you're going to be a hero, you're going to need to have an alias. Why don't you come up with some and then I'll run them through Wikipedia to see if they've been taken already."

Alicia thought for a moment, "Scorpion?"

Ace didn't even have to look Scorpion up to know that it was taken. "Taken."

"Black Widow?"

Ace looked it up and said, "Taken."

"Deathstrike?"

"Taken, kind of."

"Kind of, how can something 'kind of' be taken?" Alicia wondered, growing angry.

"Well, the real name is Lady Deathstrike, but Deathstrike would be too close of a name."

Alicia thought for a moment, her hand rubbing her chin. "Hmmm… What about Fox, since I'm just as tricky as one and twice as vicious?"

Ace checked the computer and saw that there was no hero by the name Fox. "That might just work. Although, to seal the deal, could I alter your facemask a bit? I could make you a new mask that would be more fitting than your current one. I could also make it more durable."

"Sure, I guess." Alicia pulled out her mask and set it on the table next to a computer. "Just use the dimensions off of my original one."

Ace rubbed his hands together in anticipation and snatched the mask up. He crossed the factory and went into the metal storage room. While Ace was busy with the mask, Alicia went and sat down next to Marion. She didn't say anything and just sat there. Marion appreciated the silent company.

Just over an hour later, Ace walked up to the two silent heroes with his hands behind his back. Ace presented the new mask with a "Ta-da!" and handed it to Alicia. The new design was a bit shinier and had two triangles at the top, resembling a fox's ears. Also, there were small engravings on the front of the mask that resembled whiskers. Ace had tilted the eye holes, finishing up the fox look. She flipped it over and saw that Ace had also supplied some other material in replacement of the cushions that were on the back of the previous one.

Ace began explaining the mask, "Made with Vibranium, this mask will be able to absorb most energy types, including kinetic! Also, the fact that the mask now ever so slightly slants away from the center, bullets will ricochet and will never puncture unless they hit dead on. The cushion is thinner, but made with a gel that is hyper-absorbent, reducing the impact damage tenfold. Also, the ears are very sharp and can be detached and then used as weapons in a pinch. The ears are lined with a substance known as Anti-metal that can cut through virtually any metal; this could come in handy if ever you're caught in a trap. There is also a fold-out air purifier inside the mask, so you can be safe if there is ever gas used on you. The strap is designed to be tight, but not restrictive and has slight padding for extra comfort."

Alicia was amazed, "You made this in an hour? I'd hate to see what you could make if you had a week! By the way, what's Vibranium and what in the world is Anti-metal?"

Marion decided to answer these two questions, "Vibranium is a metal that can only be found in the country of Wakanda and can absorb many different forms of energy. Anti-metal is a variant of Vibranium and has the unusual ability to destabilize the bonds of any metal. The sole exceptions to this effect are Vibranium and its variants, as well as Adamantium. Adamantium is a man-made metal that is indestructible once cooled."

"Adamantium sounds more useful than Vibranium," Alicia said. "Why didn't you use that?"

Ace took over, "That is a good point, but there are two reasons. First off, Adamantium is incredibly expensive and is one of the most complicated things to create. Secondly, Adamantium is toxic to humans and can be lethal with long exposures."

"Both are good points," Alicia said. Ace spied the katana on Alicia's back, but before he could say anything, she cut in with, "No, you cannot take my sword. This baby has been with me since the day I joined S.H.I.E.L.D."

"Does it do anything special, or is it just a blade?" Ace asked. "I wouldn't want you hacking limbs off of petty criminals."

Alicia gave a look that said 'you have got to be kidding me.' "My blade is made of ionized steel. When I put a specific amount of pressure on the grip, the grip sends a small bioelectric signal through the blade, activating the ionized metal. While ionized, the sword can cut through inorganic material far easier than a standard katana, but it becomes virtually impossible to cut through anything with an opposing charge; meaning that, while the sword is ionized, it cannot cut through living flesh, since flesh usually has bioelectricity running through it."

"So, you couldn't cut through a computer, since it too has a charge?" Marion piped in.

"No, normal electricity does not provide the specific charge required to stop the blade."

Ace wondered, "Is the process reproducible? That would be a wonderful option for the police to have, a weapon that could be lethal one moment and then immediately switch to non-lethal."

Alicia shook her head, "I do not know the process of how it was made and even if I did, it takes years of training in order to learn how to produce the specific amount of pressure on command."

"Ah, well, it sounds like you know how to use it and that's what's important," Ace said. Suddenly, a beeping noise distracted the trio. Ace recognized it as the beeping of the scanner that Doom had given him the prints for. Ace quickly made the transformation into his hybrid form and activated his suit. Ace flipped open the scanner. The screen had a red arrow pointing northwest and a small number that read 3.5 miles. "Looks like we'll be seeing your skills sooner than expected," Ace said. "The Demon has arrived!"

Alicia turned towards Ace and said, "We cannot fight him, Rex is far too powerful for three humans to take down! In our universe, Rex took a battle-cruiser cannon blast to the face and didn't even flinch!"

"We have to try! We're the only ones with the technology to track him, so if we don't take him down, he'll do to this universe what he did to yours!" Ace said, a little more harshly than he had intended.

Alicia slid on her Fox mask and said, "Fine, let's go." The trio ran towards the tunnel and unlocked it. There was a slight rumbling from behind the door and then the door swung open, revealing the long, dark tunnel. Ace turned to Alicia and motioned for her to get on his back. She tilted her head in confusion, but slid her fingers into a slot on his back and then pressed her feet against his lower back. Once she was secured, Ace knelt and then took off down the tunnel, Marion not far behind.

The flight felt much longer than what it actually was. The trio popped out the other side of the access tunnel, the entrance closing itself behind them. Ace checked his scanner and then turned north. He popped out of a subway station and then they turned left, flying over to where the harbor was. The trio flew down so that they were flying parallel with the ground, just a few feet off of it. They wanted to take this demon by surprise. They spotted it at the end of the docks, so they slowed down to a stop. Alicia jumped off, landing silently on her feet.

The Demon Rex looked exactly like his statue had. He looked half-human, half-dragon. The demon had broad shoulders with a reptilian head. He was covered in green scales and wore nothing besides a simple, purple loincloth with a lizard-like tail protruding from the base of the monster's back. The demon had glowing green eyes and his jaws made him look like he had a perpetual smile. The monster's hand and feet were surrounded by a green flame, but the flame did not seem to be scorching the ground. Wicked looking claws tipped the demon's fingers and toes.

With Alicia off of him, Ace kicked his turbines up a notch and flew at the demon. The demon swung his body around and delivered a kick with a glowing, scaled foot. The kick sent Ace flying into one of the nearby warehouses. The Cyclone suit absorbed the impact of the wall. The kick had crumpled the suit slightly, not enough to damage Ace's body.

Marion was the next to take action; he charged the demon, increasing his mass and density at the last second. The impact took the demon by surprise and the two of them went off the pier. Marion was hammering blows one after another to the demon underwater, until the demon stopped squirming. Marion let up his assault, but regretted it when the demon's eyes snapped open. The demon punched Marion so hard that he flew out of the water and back on the docks, his wood cracked from the punch.

The demon flew out of the water and landed back on the docks. He opened his mouth and with a roaring voice shouted, "I am the Demon Rex, you cannot defeat me for I have defeated gods!" Marion tried to stand up, but Rex had grabbed him and threw him at the same warehouse that Ace had crashed through. Marion made himself lighter, so that his flight was slowed dramatically. Marion twisted his body and landed with his feet against the wall. He allowed gravity to have him and dropped down to the dock.

Alicia charged the demon and unsheathed her katana while she ran. Rex tried to claw the nimble female, but she dropped down and slid under the attack. She popped up at the last second and did an arcing, upwards swing. The blade slid across Rex's skin, leaving a faint, red line where the demon's blood began seeping out. "Argh!" Rex roared. Ace made it back out of the warehouse at this point, but stayed back, trying to formulate a plan.

Alicia dodged the demon's counter-attacks and backed up, not getting another chance to attack. Marion ran in, once more increasing his density and mass. He swung a left hook, but Rex ducked beneath the attack, moving shockingly fast for a creature his size, and followed up by slashing Marion's stomach with his claws. The attack tore out chunks of his wooden body and sent him flying backwards. Marion crashed into Alicia and the pair of them went down.

"I am too powerful for you to possibly defeat!" Rex said, his words dripping with malice.

Ace suddenly had an idea, "Maybe we can't beat you, demon, but we don't have to!" Ace began sprinting towards Rex.

The demon rose his arms and shouted, "What could you possibly do against me, you pathetic mortal?!"

Once Ace was only a few feet away from the demon, he jumped in the air. While in midair, Ace tapped six random numbers into his portal device and then hit enter. The portal was created in the first available spot in front of Ace which, in this case, was behind Rex. Ace landed with his feet braced against the demon's chest and activated his leg turbines, turning them to full power. Both individuals were sent flying away from each other. Ace landed on his back several dozen yards away and Rex was sent flying backwards into the open portal. Ace deactivated the portal moments before the demon could cross through.

Marion and Alicia ran over to where Ace was lying. Marion was holding his stomach, which was repairing itself, but at a very slow rate. "It would appear," Marion said, "that his claws can damage me in a way that makes it incredibly hard to heal." He extended a hand to help Ace back to his feet.

"That will only slow him down. We'll probably be seeing him again soon," Ace said through gritted teeth.

"Better to fight another day then to fall in the line of duty," Alicia said, sheathing her sword.

Ace nodded and said, "We'd better prepare for when he comes back. He'll undoubtedly be prepared for us next time."

-To be continued in: Cyclone 04: Sinister-


End file.
